Today · announcement, October 22

Google adds Anthropic-run Claude; data residency is unclear

An Anthropic-run version of Claude on Google Cloud reaches general availability at the same price and on the same bill, with Anthropic as data processor

Concept illustration: beneath a dark sign lettered GOOGLE CLOUD with a multicoloured cloud icon stands a two-part cabinet whose shared top band is lettered CLAUDE. Its left half is beige and its right half brick red, and each half has a screen showing a speech bubble of grey lines, a dark plate below it (lettered GOOGLE with a multicoloured round icon on the left, ANTHROPIC with a white angular mark on the right) and panelled lower doors. A curly-haired person in black with a lanyard badge rests a hand on the left half, a long-haired person in a light long coat with a lanyard badge rests a hand on the right half, and a pale pink circle sits in the background.

Why it matters: Our read: Google keeps the bill and spend commitments, and Anthropic runs the service and ships new features first. Google's post lists data residency and customer-managed keys only for the Google-run version.

Google Cloud announced on October 22 that an "Anthropic-operated" version of Claude is generally available, at the same price as the "Google-operated" version, on the same Google bill, and able to draw down spend commitments (Google Cloud, 2026-10-22). In the Anthropic-run version, Anthropic is the data processor and new platform features arrive on day one. The Google-run version keeps data residency and customer-managed keys, and new features arrive only after Google wires them into its own infrastructure.

Not proven yet: Google's post doesn't say whether the Anthropic-run version has data residency How we checked →

Judgment update: SecondSource's October 22 issue reported that OpenAI's models had entered Google Cloud's model marketplace, and that the same day OpenAI announced model routers would need OpenAI's approval before providing access (October 22 issue). A model router is an intermediary service that dispatches an enterprise's requests to different model providers. The reading in that issue was that the cloud channel opened while control stayed with OpenAI.

Our read: today Anthropic's side shows the same division of labor. Billing and spend commitments go to Google. Anthropic keeps operations, the data-processor role and the timing of new features, and offers them as a separate, optional version. SecondSource's October 21 issue covered Claude arriving in Antigravity, Google's development tool, which is a separate usage-based bill. Per this announcement, the day-one features are in the Anthropic-run version. The announcement lists data residency and customer-managed keys only for the Google-run version and doesn't say whether the Anthropic-run version has them. If the Anthropic-run version indeed lacks them, buyers have to choose between faster features and those two governance features. Google's post doesn't say whether this step is something Anthropic won or a concession Google made to keep customers who want new features. Reading the two companies as the same division of labor is a judgment not yet settled. What would prove this wrong: by December 31, 2026, the Google-run version starts getting new platform features on the same day as the Anthropic-run version. The verdict date is December 31, 2026.

Source and checks

This item ran in the brief of Oct 23, 2026, alongside 6 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

Cite this item

SecondSource (2026). "Google adds Anthropic-run Claude; data residency is unclear." https://secondsource.io/en/news/2026-10-23-2/. Accessed access date.