Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei confirmed that the U.S. government declared his company a supply chain risk on Thursday and said it has “no choice” but to challenge the designation in court.
The startup has been at odds with the Department of Defense over how its artificial intelligence models, known as Claude, can be used, and was told late last week, via social media posts, that it was being blacklisted from government contracts.
Anthropic sought assurance that its technology would not be tapped for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance, but the DOD wanted Anthropic to grant the agency unfettered access to Claude across all lawful purposes.
“As we stated last Friday, we do not believe, and have never believed, that it is the role of Anthropic or any private company to be involved in operational decision-making—that is the role of the military,” Amodei wrote. “Our only concerns have been our exceptions on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, which relate to high-level usage areas, and not operational decision-making.”
Anthropic is the only American company ever to be publicly named a supply chain risk, and the designation, which is now official, will require defense vendors and contractors to certify that they don’t use the company’s models in their work with the Pentagon. The label has typically been reserved for organizations that operate within foreign adversaries, like Chinese tech company Huawei.
Uncertainty remains as to whether defense contractors can use Anthropic’s technology for projects outside of their work with the military. Amodei said in his post that the designation “doesn’t (and can’t) limit uses of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if those are unrelated to their specific Department of War contracts.”
Microsoft, which announced plans to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic in November, said in a statement that its lawyers “studied the designation” and determined that Anthropic products can remain available to its customers other than the DOD.
Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the DOD in July, and it was the first AI lab to integrate its models into mission workflows on classified networks. But as negotiations between the two sides stalled, rivals OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI also agreed to deploy their models in classified capacities.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced his company’s deal with the DOD hours after Anthropic was blacklisted on Friday. He said in a post on X that the agency displayed a “deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.”
Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration has grown increasingly tense in recent months, and Amodei apologized for a critical internal memo that was leaked to the press on Wednesday.
Amodei reportedly told staffers that the administration doesn’t like Anthropic because it hasn’t donated or offered “dictator-style praise to Trump,” according to a report from The Information.
He said the memo was written on Friday after a “difficult day for the company” and does not reflect his “careful or considered views.” Amodei added that it is an “out-of-date assessment of the current situation.”
“Anthropic did not leak this post nor direct anyone else to do so—it is not in our interest to escalate this situation,” Amodei wrote.
WATCH: Sec. Pete Hegseth directs Pentagon to designate Anthropic supply-chain risk to national security
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