20VC x SaaStr: Washington Lifts the 19-Day Fable 5 Ban, Altman Floats Handing the Government 5%, and Every Giant Wants to Be IBM

SaaStr·medium signal

Harry Stebbings, Jason Lemkin, and Rory O'Driscoll unpack the 19-day Fable 5 federal ban being lifted, Sam Altman floating a 5% government equity stake, and the thesis that every tech giant is racing to become the next IBM — full-stack, services-heavy, and enterprise-locked rather than product-led. The IBM framing is the useful part for SaaS builders: it predicts incumbents will respond to agentic disruption by moving *down* into delivery and services (see Salesforce funding 8090's software factory), not by shipping better apps.