Anthropic Says Pentagon Has Designated It a Supply Chain Risk

Anthropic said on March 5 that it had received a letter from the Department of War notifying the company that it had been designated a supply chain risk to national security.

The designation would restrict the Pentagon and its contractors from using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology in their work for the U.S. military.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a blog post that the company received the letter on March 4 and intends to challenge the supply-chain risk designation in court.

Anthropic had rejected the Pentagon’s request for unrestricted access to its Claude models due to concerns that the technology could be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon has denied that it planned to use Claude for such purposes.

The Pentagon said on March 5 that the issue comes down to one fundamental principle: ensuring the military can use technology for “all lawful purposes.”

“The military will not allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability and put our warfighters at risk,” the Pentagon said in a statement provided to multiple news outlets.

The Pentagon said Anthropic’s designation will take effect immediately. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said last week the company would continue providing services to the Department of War for six months to ensure a smooth transition to another provider.

In his blog post, Amodei pointed out that the Pentagon’s letter has “a narrow scope” and that the restriction will not apply to contracts with suppliers for non-military work.

He said the designation “plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts.”

Amodei said Anthropic had been in talks with the Department of War in recent days about ways the company could serve the Pentagon while maintaining its safeguards on two use cases, while also exploring ways to ensure a smooth transition if that cannot be achieved.

“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,” he stated.

Emil Michael, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Pentagon, said in a March 6 post on X that there is no active negotiation between the Department of War and Anthropic.

The Pentagon has used the Claude AI system, made by Anthropic, for mission-critical functions, including intelligence analysis, modeling and simulation, operational planning, and cyber operations, according to the company.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on March 2 that his department would stop using all Anthropic products after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to halt use of the company’s technology.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.