Anthropic officially deemed supply chain risk, CEO Amodei announces legal challenge

The Pentagon formally notified Anthropic on March 4 that the company and its products have been designated as a supply chain risk to US national security. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced on March 5 that the company will challenge the designation in court. According to Amodei, the measure only applies to the use of Claude as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all customers.

The dispute escalated after Anthropic demanded assurances that its AI would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weapons deployment. According to Bloomberg, Claude is currently the only AI system operating in the Pentagon's classified cloud and is actively used in US operations against Iran.

Amodei also apologized for an internal post that was leaked to the press. "It does not reflect my careful or considered views," Amodei said. The post was written within hours of Trump's Truth Social post, Secretary of War Hegseth's announcement on X, and a Pentagon deal with OpenAI.

Anthropic is offering to continue providing its models to the military at nominal cost until a transition is complete. According to Bloomberg, the company is currently valued at $380 billion and is approaching an annual revenue run rate of $20 billion.