THE Pentagon has designated Anthropic’s supply chain as a national security risk in the context of an AI military dispute. The action comes after U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth directed the department to label Anthropic’s AI model Claude a “supply chain risk.” Anthropic and the DoD had negotiated for weeks over two exceptions to the lawful use of Claude, which Anthropic described as failing to reach a workable agreement on mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
In a separate development, a memorialised memo last month from the Pentagon stated that the Department must utilise models free from usage policy constraints to support lawful military applications. The move follows statements from Anthropic arguing that its contracts should not enable mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, and from President Donald Trump claiming he was ordering federal agencies to phase out Anthropic technology within six months. According to The Department of War, the designation is tied to DoW contracts and does not extend to Claude’s use by other customers.