Anthropic’s Alibaba fight raises a trillion-dollar question for IPO: How defensible is a frontier AI moat against China with Washington’s toolbox?

Anthropic alleges Alibaba used fake accounts to distill its AI capabilities, potentially undermining Anthropic’s competitive edge and IPO prospects. U.S. policymakers are considering updated export controls to address such 'distillation attacks,' with Rep. Michael Lawler’s Remote Access Security Act aiming to restrict foreign access to sensitive AI technology via cloud services.