Anthropic CEO says firm has ‘no choice’ but to challenge US supply-chain risk designation in court

ISTANBUL

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Thursday confirmed that the US government has officially designated the artificial intelligence startup as a national security supply-chain risk, saying the company has “no choice” but to challenge the decision in court.

The designation followed a dispute between the firm and the US Department of Defense over how its AI models, known as Claude, could be used in military contexts.

Anthropic said it was informed late last week, via social media posts, that it would be barred from government contracts after talks with the Pentagon collapsed.

The company had sought assurances that its technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or large-scale domestic surveillance, while the Defense Department requested unrestricted access to Claude for all lawful purposes.

Amodei said Anthropic does not believe private companies should play a role in operational military decision-making.

“Our only concerns have been our exceptions on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance,” he wrote in a public statement, stressing that those restrictions relate to high-level use cases rather than battlefield decision-making.

Anthropic is the first American company to be publicly labeled a supply-chain risk by the US government, a classification typically applied to firms linked to geopolitical rivals such as Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.

The designation means defense contractors working with the Pentagon must certify that they are not using Anthropic’s models in their projects. However, uncertainty remains about whether companies that hold government contracts can continue to use Anthropic’s technology in unrelated commercial activities.

Amodei said the designation does not prohibit companies from working with Anthropic outside their Defense Department contracts.

Tech giant Microsoft, which announced plans to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic last November, said its legal team had reviewed the decision and concluded that Anthropic’s products could still be offered to customers other than the Pentagon.

Anthropic had previously secured a $200 million contract with the Defense Department in July and became the first AI laboratory to integrate its models into mission workflows on classified networks. But as negotiations with the Pentagon stalled, competitors, including OpenAI and xAI, founded by Elon Musk, also reached agreements to deploy their models in classified environments.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced his company’s deal with the Defense Department hours after Anthropic was blacklisted, saying the agency showed “deep respect for safety” and a willingness to cooperate.

Tensions between Anthropic and the administration of Donald Trump have intensified in recent months.

Amodei also apologized this week for an internal memo criticizing the administration that was leaked to the media. According to a report by The Information, the memo suggested the administration was frustrated with Anthropic because the company had not made political donations or offered strong public support for Trump.

Amodei said the message was written after a difficult day for the company and did not reflect his carefully considered views, describing it as an outdated assessment of the situation.

He added that Anthropic did not leak the memo and had no interest in escalating the dispute.