Jonathan Kanter is using AI to take on Big Tech

Jonathan Kanter, the former head of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division who stepped down in 2024, has partnered with former acting division chief Doha Mekki to launch FluxCap, an artificial intelligence startup built to assist legal teams pursuing antitrust actions. As detailed in The Verge's report, the venture pairs former Justice Department attorneys with former Palantir engineers to deliver specialized research and analysis software. FluxCap is designed specifically to help plaintiffs build cases against well-resourced corporate defendants, debuting with an initial focus on antitrust litigation before expanding across other legal areas.

This report details FluxCap's technical structure, roots in federal enforcement, and operational implications for litigators taking on corporate giants. The analysis examines how the software pinpoints nuanced anticompetitive conduct within discovery documents, why standard commercial large language models struggle with courtroom subtleties, and how boutique firms and regulatory bodies can leverage automated evidentiary review. For antitrust litigators, public prosecutors, state attorneys general, and technology policy observers, this piece outlines the platform's core mechanics, historical context, and role in modern monopoly enforcement.

Jonathan Kanter is using AI to take on Big: what actually changed

The launch of FluxCap marks a strategic transition for Kanter and Mekki from running federal enforcement to providing specialized analytical tools for litigators. While directing the Antitrust Division under the Biden administration, Kanter led monopolization lawsuits against Apple and Live Nation and took Google to trial twice. However, government teams consistently faced staggering resource deficits when confronting corporations backed by trillion-dollar market valuations and massive defense counsel. FluxCap changes that dynamic by supplying independent plaintiffs and boutique law firms with automated capabilities intended to deliver the analytical output of roughly twenty additional professionals working continuously.

The company replaces generic commercial artificial intelligence with systems tailored for courtroom analysis. During his tenure at the Justice Department, Kanter secured a 45.5 million dollar grant from the Tech Modernization Fund to implement improved evidentiary review systems, though his team departed public service before deploying those tools. Rather than turning to platforms like ChatGPT or Harvey, which Kanter noted miss critical nuances, FluxCap introduces proprietary technology paired with foundation models tested against historical antitrust records to help attorneys identify vulnerabilities in their legal arguments before entering trial.

Jonathan Kanter is using AI to take on Big: how it works

FluxCap operates by ingesting extensive discovery materials to detect patterns of anticompetitive conduct across corporate files. The platform integrates proprietary software with existing large language models, training specifically on statutory frameworks, economic facts, and evidentiary standards that determine trial success. When preparing for litigation, legal teams feed unstructured document troves into the engine to interrogate factual timelines, flag evidentiary contradictions, and identify weaknesses in assembled legal theories. The software assesses the broader factual setting surrounding executive correspondence, recognizing instances where business actions impose coercive market pressure without containing explicit admissions of monopolistic behavior.

The analytical architecture addresses the reality that corporate executives rarely document illegal practices directly. In the federal trial against Live Nation-Ticketmaster, for example, prosecutors highlighted a phone call where Live Nation's chief executive warned an arena customer that selecting another ticketing vendor could jeopardize future concert bookings. The customer testified he viewed the comment as a veiled threat. Because effective litigation focuses on persuasive advocacy rather than binary rules, FluxCap's team spent months testing the system on historical records to ensure the software grasps subtle context that basic legal tools routinely overlook.

Jonathan Kanter is using AI to take on Big: why it matters

The development confronts a severe funding gap between enforcement bodies and target corporations. Congress appropriated 245 million dollars to the entire Antitrust Division for fiscal year 2026, supporting over 400 attorneys across all statutory areas. That allocation pales beside the legal defense budgets of corporate defendants with multibillion-dollar valuations. Kanter described technological assistance as an existential requirement for regulatory enforcement, emphasizing that public watchdogs cannot succeed unless limited resources stretch further. By operating as a virtual capacity multiplier, the software enables lean teams to conduct exhaustive document discovery that previously required extensive institutional staffing.

The resource divide is even steeper among state attorneys general, who frequently maintain active antitrust dockets without federal backing. Earlier this year, state attorneys general achieved a court victory against Live Nation after the Justice Department under the Trump administration settled its case. State enforcers also challenged the Paramount-Warner Media merger and negotiated a settlement when federal regulators declined to sue. With a large state office often assigning only ten lawyers to an entire antitrust prosecution, automated analysis helps mitigate structural deficits that otherwise leave regional authorities outmatched by deep corporate legal budgets.

Jonathan Kanter is using AI to take on Big: who is affected

Antitrust boutique firms and private litigation practices represent the initial user base adopting the new technology. FluxCap has signed the antitrust boutique firm Kressin Powers as an early commercial customer, while holding active discussions with various public enforcers and private practitioners. Kanter indicated that deploying the software gives smaller litigation units the effective capacity of more than twenty staff members working around the clock. This virtual staffing level allows boutique practices to review massive corporate document productions without hiring external contract attorney armies, enabling them to pursue complex monopolization claims independently.

State regulatory bodies and corporate defendants will also feel the operational effects of expanded discovery automation. State attorneys general with limited staff can run deeper analyses of regional market consolidation and corporate acquisitions without overwhelming their internal dockets. Conversely, corporate defense counsel must anticipate that plaintiff teams will uncover problematic electronic communications much faster during discovery. While corporate defendants retain vastly superior financial reserves, automated document review limits their ability to exhaust opposing counsel solely through massive document dumps and protracted discovery demands across federal and state courts.

Jonathan Kanter is using AI to take on Big: what to watch

FluxCap plans to expand its analytical engine into additional legal practice areas after establishing its footprint in antitrust litigation. Observers will track whether early deployments at boutique firms like Kressin Powers translate into formal software adoptions by state or federal regulatory agencies. Kanter cautioned that technology alone cannot fully level the legal playing field, as government agencies still require expanded congressional appropriations, increased budgets, and additional attorneys. Even with improved tooling, corporate defense expenditures will continue to exceed public resources, making the tool's performance in contested litigation an important test of its equalizing potential.

Market performance will also reveal whether domain-specific legal software delivers better courtroom results than generic enterprise platforms. While attorneys frequently experiment with general models like ChatGPT or broad tools like Harvey, FluxCap's leadership by former federal enforcers and Palantir engineers bets that deep antitrust specialization produces superior document review and argument analysis. Upcoming courtroom filings, discovery disputes, and trial verdicts involving FluxCap clients will show whether algorithmic assistance provides measurable advantages when litigating against dominant corporate enterprises across digital platforms, media networks, and entertainment markets.