Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, during a Bloomberg Television interview in San Francisco on December 9, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | fake images
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei confirmed that the US government declared on Thursday that his company posed a supply chain risk and said he has “no choice” but to challenge the designation in court.
The startup has been at odds with the Department of Defense over how its artificial intelligence models, known as Claude, can be used, and late last week, via social media posts, it was told it was blacklisted for government contracts.
Anthropic sought assurances that its technology would not be leveraged for fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance, but the DOD wanted Anthropic to grant the agency unfettered access to Claude for all legal purposes.
“As we stated last Friday, we do not believe, and have never believed, that it is the role of Anthropic or any private company to engage in operational decision making; that is the role of the military,” Amodei wrote. “Our only concerns have been our exceptions on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, which relate to high-level areas of use, and not operational decision-making.”
Anthropic is the only American company that has been publicly named as a supply chain risk, and the designation, which is now official, will require defense suppliers and contractors to certify that they do not use the company’s models in their work with the Pentagon. The label has generally been reserved for organizations that operate within foreign adversaries, such as Chinese technology company Huawei.
Uncertainty remains over whether defense contractors can use Anthropic’s technology for projects outside of their work with the military. Amodei said in his post that the designation “does not (and cannot) limit Claude’s uses or business relationships with Anthropic if they are not related to his specific contracts with the War Department.”
microsoftwhich announced plans to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic in November, said in a statement that its attorneys “studied the designation” and determined that Anthropic’s products can remain available to its non-DOD customers.
Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense in July and was the first AI lab to integrate its models into mission workflows on classified networks. But when negotiations between the two sides stalled, rivals OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI also agreed to deploy their models in classified capacities.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced his company’s deal with the Department of Defense hours after Anthropic was blacklisted on Friday. He said in a post on X that the agency showed a “deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome.”
Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration has become increasingly strained in recent months and Amodei apologized for a critical internal memo that was leaked to the press on Wednesday.
Amodei reportedly told staff that the administration doesn’t like Anthropic because it hasn’t donated or offered “dictator-style praise to Trump,” according to a report by The Information.
He said the memo was written on Friday after a “difficult day for the company” and does not reflect his “careful or considered views.” Amodei added that this is an “outdated assessment of the current situation.”
“Anthropic did not leak this post or direct anyone else to do so; we have no interest in aggravating this situation,” Amodei wrote.
LOOK: Second. Pete Hegseth Orders Pentagon to Designate Anthropic Supply Chain Risk to National Security
