The Pentagon formally labels Anthropic a supply-chain risk
The decision, first reported by The Wall Street Journal Thursday, citing a close source, will ban defense contractors from working with the government if they use Claude, Anthropic’s AI program, in their products. Although this designation is typically applied to foreign companies with ties to opposing governments, this is the first time a U.S. company has publicly received this label.
At the heart of the conflict is Anthropic’s refusal to allow the Pentagon to use Claude for two purposes: lethal autonomous weapons without human supervision and mass surveillance. The Pentagon argued that Anthropic’s demands for control over government use would place too much power in the hands of a private company, while Anthropic was not reassured that the government would respect its red lines. Negotiations deteriorated, however, as the Pentagon increasingly threatened to use the supply chain risk designation if Anthropic refused to comply with its demands. After Anthropic announced last Thursday that it would not comply, the Pentagon made good on the threat. (The Pentagon has not made an official comment. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
It is unclear to what extent the Pentagon will attempt to enforce this designation. On Friday, when he announced his intention to label Anthropic a risk, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that any company that engaged in “any commercial activity” with Anthropic — even outside of its work for the Pentagon — would have its defense contracts canceled. At the time, Anthropic responded that such broad application of the law would be illegal.
Hegseth and President Donald Trump have set a 6-month deadline for Anthropic to remove Claude from government systems, but it won’t be easy, especially from the military. After the United States attacked Iran over the weekend, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a targeted missile strike, reports indicated that intelligence tools fueled by Claude played a major role in the mission’s success.
