Anthropic struck a content and data licensing deal with the Associated Press just before the US midterm elections — the first time it has ever paid a digital news publisher for content, Adweek reported, citing two people familiar with the matter. On Election Night, Claude users asking for polling updates saw up-to-the-minute information provided by and attributed to the AP.

Neither company commented on the record, and the financial terms, duration and scope beyond election data were not disclosed. Anthropic had announced earlier this fall that Claude would show up-to-date results on election night and in the days that follow; the AP deal is what supplied that live data.

The move is a notable strategy shift. Anthropic had argued that its use of publisher content was permitted under fair use and declined the licensing talks OpenAI and Google pursued — the AP was, in fact, the first publisher both of those companies signed. The deal also surfaced days after Anthropic's October 26 S-1 filing, as it prepares for an IPO while facing active copyright lawsuits.