US President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth behind, speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on a flight from Dover, Delaware, to Miami, Florida, US, March 7, 2026.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday, seeking to reverse a Pentagon blacklist that declared the artificial intelligence company a “supply chain risk.”
The company said in a complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, that these actions are unprecedented and illegal, and that they are “irreparably harming Anthropic.”
“Anthropic’s contracts with the federal government are already being canceled. Current and future contracts with private parties are also in question, putting hundreds of millions of dollars at risk in the near term,” the document says. “In addition to those immediate economic damages, Anthropic’s reputation and fundamental First Amendment freedoms are under attack. In the absence of judicial redress, those damages will only worsen in the coming weeks and months.”
The lawsuit is the latest episode in a dramatic two-week saga between Anthropic and the Trump administration over how the company’s artificial intelligence models can be used on the battlefield and elsewhere. Before the dispute between the two sides escalated into public view late last month, Anthropic served as an early partner to many U.S. agencies as the government sought to rapidly upgrade its systems and capabilities with cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology.
On Thursday, Anthropic confirmed that it had been officially designated as a supply chain risk, an extraordinary measure that has historically been reserved for foreign adversaries. It will require defense suppliers and contractors to certify that they do not use Anthropic’s models, known as Claude, in their work with the Pentagon.
President Donald Trump also shared a social media post last month ordering federal agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology.
“WE will decide the fate of our country, NOT an out-of-control radical left-wing AI company run by people who have no idea what the real world is about,” Trump wrote.
Anthropic has asked the court to vacate the supply chain risk designation and grant the company a stay of action as the legal case unfolds.
The company has separately requested a formal review of the Defense Department’s determination before the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC.
Anthropic said the government’s decision could jeopardize “hundreds of millions of dollars” in revenue in the near term. Chief Financial Officer Krishna Rao said in a related filing on Monday that the hit could be much more severe.
“Across Anthropic’s business, and adjusting for the probability that a given customer takes a peak reading, the government’s actions could reduce Anthropic’s revenue in 2026 by several billion dollars,” Rao said.
Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense in July and was the first artificial intelligence lab to deploy its technology on the agency’s classified networks. The company had been renegotiating the future terms of its contract and talks stalled because the two organizations could not agree on how their models could be used.
The DOD wanted Anthropic to grant the agency unrestricted access to its AI models for all legal purposes, while Anthropic wanted assurances that its models would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance.
Anthropic models have still been used to support the US military operation in Iran, even after the company was blacklisted, as CNBC previously reported.
“Seeking judicial review does not change our long-standing commitment to leveraging AI to protect our national security, but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers and our partners,” an Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC on Monday. “We will continue to pursue all avenues toward resolution, including dialogue with the government.”
A DOD spokesperson said the agency does not comment on litigation.
More than a dozen federal agencies, including the DOD, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of State and the General Services Administration, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
“The consequences of this case are enormous,” the complaint says. “Defendants seek to destroy the economic value created by one of the world’s fastest-growing private companies, which is a leader in the responsible development of an emerging technology of vital importance to our nation.”
LOOK: Why the US Department of Defense’s Anthropic blacklist is unprecedented
