Pentagon declares Anthropic a supply chain risk; OpenAI steps in

The Pentagon has cut ties with Anthropic, the maker of Claude AI, designating the San Francisco-based company a “supply-chain risk to national security” and barring any contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the US military from dealing with Anthropic. The move marks a rare escalation in a government–industry dispute, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the contract would be cancelled, with Anthropic’s $200m Pentagon deal awarded last July effectively ended.

OpenAI then stepped in, with the Pentagon signing a separate deal with the ChatGPT creator a few hours after the Anthropic decision, and Altman describing the arrangement as applying an “all lawful purposes” framework layered with architectural controls. Anthropic argued the designation was unlawful and politically motivated, while legal scholars question whether the secretary can meet the statutory requirements for such a designation.

The morning after, sources said Claude remained in use in some classified systems, and there is a six-month period during which the Pentagon will disentangle Anthropic’s AI from its operations; the dispute has already seen more than 875 employees from Google and OpenAI sign an open letter backing Anthropic.