Apple, Google, and Microsoft join Anthropic's Project Glasswing to defend world's most critical software

## Summary
Introducing Project Glasswing Project Glasswing is described in the announcement as: "An initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world's most critical software." The name "glasswing" may mean nothing, or provide some insight into the project's overall intent. According to the announcement, "We formed Project Glasswing because the capabilities we've observed in Mythos Preview could reshape cybersecurity." It's clearly worse than we thought Anthropic described the Mythos Preview model as a "general-purpose, unreleased frontier model" with strong agentic coding and reasoning skills. The Project Glasswing announcement said: "No one organization can solve these cybersecurity problems alone: frontier AI developers, other software companies, security researchers, open-source maintainers, and governments across the world all have essential roles to play." There are hundreds of thousands of these components running on billions of devices and within millions of software programs. The Project Glasswing announcement obliquely reflects this situation: "Anthropic has also been in ongoing discussions with US government officials about Claude Mythos Preview and its offensive and defensive cyber capabilities." This is the only time in the announcement that Mythos was described as capable of supporting "offensive" capabilities.

## Article Content
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Apple, Google, and Microsoft join Anthropic's Project Glasswing to defend world's most critical software
Is this AI's Manhattan Project? Twelve tech rivals are banding together and using Anthropic's unreleased Mythos model to find thousands of vulnerabilities before adversaries do.
Written by
David Gewirtz,
Senior Contributing Editor
Senior Contributing Editor
April 7, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. PT
Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
ZDNET's key takeaways
AI found thousands of hidden bugs in critical systems.
Tech rivals unite to secure shared infrastructure risks.
Cyberattack timelines shrink from months to minutes.
Today, a group of the world's biggest tech companies is announcing what is essentially an
AI-driven
cybersecurity Manhattan Project.
As the Cyberwarfare Advisor for the International Association of Counterterrorism & Security Professionals and part of the FBI's InfraGard Artificial Intelligence Threat and Mitigation Cross-Sector Council, I've spent decades profiling global threats, from lecturing at the National Defense University to leading nationwide cyberattack simulations. But the arrival of a new frontier AI from Anthropic represents a paradigm shift that even the most prepared infrastructure specialists are scrambling to navigate.
There is a lot to unpack from this announcement, but before I go into the published details, I'm going to try to read between the lines. That's because the mere existence of this announcement means there's a lot that remains unsaid.
The fact that all of these companies are working together has to be indicative of the scale of the threat and the scale of the project necessary to respond to it.
Also:
AI agents of chaos? New research shows how bots talking to bots can go sideways fast
What I'm going to describe is both terrifying news and, at the same time, somewhat encouraging news. It's worrisome because clearly
our entire cybersecurity infrastructure is at great risk
due to advances in weapons-grade AI. Otherwise, these fierce competitors wouldn't be working together as announced today.
It's somewhat encouraging because these intense competitors
have
chosen to work together to reduce that infrastructure vulnerability. This is wild news, folks.
Introducing Project Glasswing
Project Glasswing
is described in the announcement as: "An initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world's most critical software."
The name "glasswing" may mean nothing, or provide some insight into the project's overall intent. The
glasswing butterfly
, native to Central and South America, is so-named because of its transparent wings that allow it to camouflage itself in its surroundings. The butterfly is also unusually resilient, able to carry up to 40 times its own weight.
Also:
Why enterprise AI agents could become the ultimate insider threat
At its core, this "
coalition of the willing
" is planning to deploy two defensive weapons: a new, unreleased AI model called Claude Mythos Preview and a pile of cash ($4 million in direct donations and $150 million in
Claude usage credits
).
At first glance, this announcement looks like a highly coordinated PR strategy, some security theater. Another skeptical interpretation might be that these companies are creating a security cartel to lock out startups and other players.
But I don't think that's the case. Based on statements from key players and the security vulnerabilities mentioned, I think this is something far more serious than a giant corporate PR photo op to make everyone look responsible with AI.
Having spent time as an executive at Symantec and a team lead at Apple, I've seen firsthand how fiercely these companies guard their intellectual property. To see them hand over $150 million in credits and open up unreleased models to one another tells me the threat level has moved from competitive to existential.
Also:
Stop saying AI hallucinates - it doesn't. And the mischaracterization is dangerous
The fact is, you don't see these specific companies cooperating like this unless the alternative is mutually assured destruction of their shared infrastructure.
And no, I don't think that's hyperbole.
Here's how Elia Zaitsev, CTO at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, described the situation: "The window between a vulnerability being discovered and being exploited by an adversary has collapsed. What once took months now happens in minutes with AI."
If the name CrowdStrike sounds familiar, it might be because
back in 2024
, the company pushed an update that accidentally bypassed safeguards and crashed millions of Windows systems all across the planet. If any one company knows what a bad day feels like, it's CrowdStrike.
According to the announcement, "We formed Project Glasswing because the capabilities we've observed in Mythos Preview could res

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## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- Innovation Home Innovation Artificial Intelligence Apple, Google, and Microsoft join Anthropic's Project Glasswing to defend world's most critical software Is this AI's Manhattan Project?
- According to the announcement, "We formed Project Glasswing because the capabilities we've observed in Mythos Preview could reshape cybersecurity." It's clearly worse than we thought Anthropic described the Mythos Preview model as a "general-purpose, unreleased frontier model" with strong agentic coding and reasoning skills.
- Providers of technology must aggressively adopt new approaches now." This fact is why he says Cisco joined Project Glasswing: "This work is too important and too urgent to do alone." That's a breathtaking statement, especially considering who it's coming from.
- Also: I used Gmail's AI tool to do hours of work for me in 10 minutes - with 3 prompts It's important to acknowledge the ongoing issues Anthropic has had recently with the US Government.

### Areas for Consideration
- As the Cyberwarfare Advisor for the International Association of Counterterrorism & Security Professionals and part of the FBI's InfraGard Artificial Intelligence Threat and Mitigation Cross-Sector Council, I've spent decades profiling global threats, from lecturing at the National Defense University to leading nationwide cyberattack simulations.
- The fact that all of these companies are working together has to be indicative of the scale of the threat and the scale of the project necessary to respond to it.
- It's worrisome because clearly our entire cybersecurity infrastructure is at great risk due to advances in weapons-grade AI.

### Implications
- Introducing Project Glasswing Project Glasswing is described in the announcement as: "An initiative that brings together Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, JPMorganChase, the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks in an effort to secure the world's most critical software." The name "glasswing" may mean nothing, or provide some insight into the project's overall intent.
- Also: Why enterprise AI agents could become the ultimate insider threat At its core, this " coalition of the willing " is planning to deploy two defensive weapons: a new, unreleased AI model called Claude Mythos Preview and a pile of cash ($4 million in direct donations and $150 million in Claude usage credits ).
- Another skeptical interpretation might be that these companies are creating a security cartel to lock out startups and other players.
- Having spent time as an executive at Symantec and a team lead at Apple, I've seen firsthand how fiercely these companies guard their intellectual property.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers infrastructure, project, security topics. Notable strengths include discussion of infrastructure. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 2345.