The Pentagon has reportedly told Anthropic it will be officially labeled a supply-chain risk – just days after the AI firm’s CEO Dario Amodei circulated a letter to staffers bashing the Trump administration’s efforts against the company.
The Department of War on Thursday formally notified Anthropic executives that the company and its AI tools – including chatbot Claude – pose serious security risks, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior Pentagon official.
The official said the military would not let a vendor put members of the armed services at risk by restricting the lawful use of its technology – after Anthropic sought to bar the government from using its AI for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has argued the exceptions Anthropic is seeking are too restrictive, insisting that the Pentagon should be allowed to use AI tools for “all lawful purposes.”
Amodei was reportedly holding talks with Emil Michael, the War Department’s undersecretary for research and engineering, as part of a “last-ditch effort” to reach a contract – days after the exec accused rival OpenAI of spouting “just straight up lies” about Anthropic’s dispute with the government.
It’s one of the first times an American company will be slapped with the supply-chain risk label, which could potentially ban any organization working with the military from partnering with Anthropic – possibly impacting investors like Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Google.
The Pentagon, Anthropic and OpenAI did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
In his 1,600-word memo to staffers Friday, Amodei said he believes the government has been targeting Anthropic because it opposed the White House’s AI agenda and hasn’t “given dictator-style praise to Trump.”
Amodei also said Anthropic was being punished because he didn’t “donate to Trump” – “while OpenAI/Greg have donated a lot,” referring to OpenAI president Greg Brockman, the Information reported.
Amodei – who donated to Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign – blasted OpenAI and the Pentagon for allegedly smearing his company’s name.
“I want to be very clear on the messaging that is coming from OpenAI, and the mendacious nature of it,” he wrote in the note.
He added that “a lot of OpenAI and [Department of War] messaging just straight up lies about these issues or tries to confuse them,” insisting that OpenAI’s contract terms, for example, were never offered to Anthropic.
Meanwhile, OpenAI announced Friday it would step in to provide AI services to the Pentagon – stoking backlash from AI workers concerned about the risk of new tech being used for surveillance of citizens.
Altman was “presenting himself as someone who wants to ‘set the same contract for everyone in the industry,’” while “behind the scenes” working with the Department of War to replace Anthropic “the instant we are designated a supply chain risk,” Amodei wrote.
OpenAI’s deal includes safeguards that are “maybe 20% real and 80% safety theater,” he added.
During a Morgan Stanley technology conference on Thursday, Altman pushed back on the criticism – and took a few jabs at Anthropic.
“The government is supposed to be more powerful than private companies,” he said, adding that it’s “bad for society” if companies start abandoning their commitment to the democratic process because “some people don’t like the person or people currently in charge.”
Altman acknowledged, however, that the timing of OpenAI’s deal – which came just hours after talks with Anthropic fell apart – “looked opportunistic and sloppy.”
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