It’s official: The Pentagon has labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk

The U.S. Department of Defense has officially designated Anthropic a supply chain risk — the first American company to receive such a label, typically reserved for foreign adversaries. The conflict stems from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's refusal to allow the military to use Claude for mass surveillance of Americans or fully autonomous weapons without human oversight. Ironically, the DOD continues to rely on Claude via Palantir's Maven Smart System in its Iran operations. Critics, including a former Trump White House AI advisor, have called the designation unprecedented and 'thuggish.' Hundreds of OpenAI and Google employees have urged the DOD to withdraw the label. Meanwhile, OpenAI struck its own deal allowing military use of its AI for 'all lawful purposes,' a move that has concerned some of its own employees. Amodei has characterized the DOD's actions as retaliatory, partly linked to his refusal to praise or donate to President Trump.