On Thursday, President Trump told Axios he no longer views Anthropic as a national security threat. "Well, not now. A week ago, maybe," he said. The remark capped a week of extraordinary turbulence for the AI industry, triggered by an unprecedented U.S. government order that forced Anthropic to shut down global access to its most advanced models.
The episode began on June 12, when the U.S. Commerce Department issued an export control directive barring Anthropic from providing access to Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 to any non-U.S. person — including foreign nationals working inside Anthropic. The company, unable to reliably filter by nationality across platforms like direct API and AWS Bedrock, chose to disable both models for all users worldwide within minutes. Other Claude models, including Opus 4.8, remained available.
Behind the ban
The trigger, according to reports, was a "jailbreak" that allowed Mythos 5 to analyze code and surface potential security vulnerabilities. Amazon researchers flagged the issue, escalating it to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was personally involved in the decision.
The order drew fierce pushback from the cybersecurity community. More than 100 security experts signed an open letter calling for a reversal, arguing the ban hurts defenders more than attackers. "It prevents security researchers from using the best available tools," they wrote.
The situation remains fluid. Anthropic says it is complying while working to restore access, and believes the directive may stem from a misunderstanding.
SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60 billion
In one of the largest startup acquisitions of the year, SpaceX agreed to acquire Anysphere, the company behind the popular Cursor AI code editor, for $60 billion in an all-stock deal announced June 16.
The acquisition came days after SpaceX's blockbuster IPO and formalizes an earlier April agreement that gave SpaceX the right to buy the company at that price. Cursor will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2026 and is widely seen as a major push by Elon Musk's combined SpaceX/xAI entity into developer tools and AI coding infrastructure.
Google retires Gemini CLI — Antigravity takes over
On June 18, Google announced it is ending support for Gemini CLI on consumer tiers and migrating all users to Antigravity, its new agentic development platform. The Antigravity CLI (agy) is a Go-based rewrite sharing the same agent harness as the full platform. It defaults to Gemini 3.5 Flash, optimized for coding and agentic benchmarks.
Midjourney enters healthcare — with a spa body scanner
In a striking pivot, Midjourney unveiled Midjourney Medical, a full-body ultrasonic scanner that produces 3D images in 60 seconds using sound waves rather than radiation or magnets. The scanner is housed in a spa setting — the first flagship location in San Francisco is slated to open by end of 2027. Midjourney aims to deploy 50,000 scanners worldwide over six years for preventive health monitoring.
Norway's near-total AI school ban
On June 19, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced that students in grades 1-7 (ages 6-13) will generally not be allowed to use generative AI tools in school. Students aged 14-16 may use AI only under direct teacher supervision. The restrictions take effect in August 2026, reflecting a growing European push for tighter AI regulation in education.
Market snapshot
In equity markets, Intel surged 11% on June 18 after a Trump social media post hinted at possible Apple collaboration on U.S.-based chip design — a claim neither company confirmed. Micron rose 9% and Marvell 8%, leading a broad semiconductor rally. The Nasdaq was up 2.4% for the week through Thursday's close.
The bottom line
This was one of the most consequential weeks in recent AI history. The export control order against Anthropic set a precedent that could reshape how frontier models are distributed globally. The SpaceX-Cursor deal reshapes the developer tools landscape. And as Norway and other countries tighten AI rules in education, the regulatory picture grows more complex by the day.
The open question: which company is next in the crosshairs — and which one will be acquired next?
