Jonathan Kanter, who resigned as head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division in 2024, is continuing his mission to dismantle illegal monopolies, now from the private sector and armed with artificial intelligence. Together with former acting Antitrust Division chief Doha Mekki, Kanter has launched FluxCap, a new tech startup. The team consists of former DOJ staff and ex-Palantir engineers, and they are offering an AI-based legal research and analysis tool designed to assist plaintiffs in building and strengthening cases against wealthy companies that previously faced the Antitrust Division. While FluxCap is initially focused on antitrust cases, the company plans to expand into other legal practice areas.
Kanter envisions FluxCap as a “force multiplier” for antitrust watchdogs confronting powerful opponents in Big Tech and beyond. He describes the technology as essential to the future of enforcement, stating, “This, to me, it’s existential,” in an interview with The Verge. “Because it’s the only way that enforcement is going to work in the long term, is if technology and other tools are able to help scarce resources go significantly further than they can today.”
Built upon proprietary technology and existing large language models, FluxCap’s platform is designed primarily for research and analysis. It is trained to identify the facts and legal frameworks that determine case success, while also identifying potential weaknesses in attorneys' logic. To aid trial preparation, the tool helps sift through vast amounts of discovery materials to find signals of anticompetitive behavior. This represents a growing trend of legal technology that uses AI to increase efficiency and help lawyers accomplish more with limited resources.
One of the greatest challenges in developing the tool was teaching it to recognize relevant evidence, Kanter explains. Corporate executives rarely admit to being monopolists, but surrounding context can convey specific meanings. For instance, during the antitrust trial against Live Nation-Ticketmaster, the government played a recorded phone call in which the Live Nation CEO warned a customer that a new arena could reduce concert availability at their venue. The customer interpreted this as a “not-so-veiled” threat that Live Nation might withhold events programming if he did not accept their ticketing service.
The FluxCap team, composed of former government lawyers, spent months testing the system with real and hypothetical cases to ensure it could build solid arguments. Kanter notes that standard legal tools, which he refers to as “BLTs,” struggle with this nuance because “lawyering isn't about right or wrong answers.” Both sides can be correct or incorrect, and the goal is to persuade a court, jury, or regulator to reach a specific outcome.
Kressin Powers, an antitrust boutique firm, is one of FluxCap’s first customers, and Kanter reports ongoing talks with both public and private enforcers. He emphasizes that the tool provides “virtual capacity,” allowing a small team to compete with a large one, essentially functioning as the manpower of 20-plus people working around the clock.
The concept for FluxCap originated within the Antitrust Division, where Kanter and his team sought to leverage technology to maximize limited resources. During the Biden administration, the DOJ successfully filed monopolization suits against Apple, Live Nation, and Google. However, the Division's resources pale in comparison to the multibillion-dollar market caps and extensive legal teams of the companies they target. The entire Antitrust Division was appropriated $245 million by Congress for fiscal year 2026, utilizing over 400 attorneys.
The disparity is even more pronounced for state attorneys general, who have been pushing antitrust actions as federal enforcement has slowed. Kanter points out that a large state AG office might have only 10 people on a case, making it unrealistic to match the resources of major corporations. He recalls that while AI-based tools were available during his tenure, they often lacked the nuance required for complex legal research, despite the DOJ securing a $45.5 million grant for better tools.
Kanter acknowledges that while technology creates a “great equalizer,” it cannot fully level the playing field against well-funded private defendants. He believes, however, that even with increased government funding, such defendants will always have the advantage. FluxCap aims to bridge this gap, enabling teams to compete effectively regardless of their size or financial resources.
The Editorial Staff at AIChief is a team of professional content writers with extensive experience in AI and marketing. Founded in 2025, AIChief has quickly grown into the largest free AI resource hub in the industry.