(Credit: Joel Saget / AFP via Getty Images)
The Pentagon has officially designated Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, meaning the AI company will be cut off from partnering with other brands that work with the agency.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei now says the brand has “no choice but to challenge it in court.” It comes after Anthropic refused to adhere to Defense Department policies regarding AI use for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
On X last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "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."
"Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic," Hegseth added. "Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service."
Amodei also says Anthropic doesn't foresee problems for most Claude customers stemming from the new designation. “The language used by the Department of War in the letter (even supposing it was legally sound) matches our statement on Friday that the vast majority of our customers are unaffected by a supply chain risk designation.
"With respect to our customers, it 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," he says.
Anthropic's stance gave it a bump on the app store charts. Claude is currently the top free downloaded app on the App Store, followed by ChatGPT, and Google Gemini. On Google Play, the top three spots go to Claude, ChatGPT, and Temu. Anthropic's chief product officer says the brand is seeing more than a million new customers a day.
Amodei also apologized for a post he sent to company staff last week, which was leaked to The Information. The memo quoted Amodei as saying, “We haven’t given dictator-style praise to Trump (while Sam has),” referring to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
OpenAI has agreed to the US government's changes, announcing that GPT models can be used in the Department of Defense's classified networks.
Disclosure: Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April 2025, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.