Anthropic to challenge DOD’s supply chain label in court

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei announced plans to challenge the Department of Defense's supply chain risk designation in federal court, calling it "legally unsound." The Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk after a dispute over whether the military should have unrestricted access to Claude for "all lawful purposes" — a condition Anthropic rejected, drawing lines against mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. Amodei argues the designation is narrow in scope and affects only a small subset of customers using Claude directly under DoD contracts. He also addressed a leaked internal memo in which he criticized OpenAI's Pentagon deal as "safety theater," apologizing for the tone while noting it was written under pressure. OpenAI has since signed a deal with the DoD in Anthropic's place. Legal experts note courts are generally reluctant to second-guess government national security decisions, making the challenge difficult but not impossible.