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The Department of Defense (DOD) has officially notified Anthropic leadership that the company and its products have been designated a supply-chain risk, Bloomberg<\/a> reports, citing a senior department official.\u00a0<\/p>\n The designation comes after weeks of conflict<\/a> between the AI lab and the DOD. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has refused<\/a> to allow the military to use its AI systems for mass surveillance of Americans or to power fully autonomous weapons with no humans assisting in the targeting or firing decisions. The Department has argued that its use of AI should not be limited by a private contractor.\u00a0<\/p>\n Supply-chain-risk designations are typically reserved for foreign adversaries. The label requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn\u2019t use Anthropic\u2019s models.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Pentagon\u2019s finding threatens to disrupt both the company and its own operations. Anthropic has been the only frontier AI lab with classified-ready systems. The U.S. military is currently relying on Claude in its Iran campaign, where American forces are using AI tools to quickly manage the data for their operations. Claude is one of the main tools installed in Palantir\u2019s Maven Smart System, which military operators in the Middle East rely on, according to Bloomberg.<\/p>\n Labeling Anthropic a supply-chain risk over this disagreement is an unprecedented move from the Department, several critics say. Dean Ball, a former Trump White House AI adviser, has referred to the designation<\/a> as a \u201cdeath rattle\u201d of the American republic, arguing government has abandoned strategic clarity and respect in favor of \u201cthuggish\u201d tribalism that treats domestic innovators worse than foreign adversaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hundreds of employees from OpenAI and Google have urged the DOD to withdraw<\/a> its designation and called on Congress to push back on what could be perceived as an inappropriate use of authority against an American technology company. They have also urged their leaders to stand together<\/a> to continue to refuse the DOD\u2019s demands to use their AI models for domestic mass surveillance and \u201cautonomously killing people without human oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic for comment. <\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco, CA<\/span> In the midst of the dispute, OpenAI forged its own deal with the Department to allow the military to use its AI systems for \u201call lawful purposes.\u201d Some of the company\u2019s employees<\/a> have expressed concern about the ambiguous phrasing of the deal, which could lead to exactly the type of uses Anthropic was trying to avoid.<\/p>\n Amodei has called the actions of the DOD \u201cretaliatory and punitive,\u201d and reportedly<\/a> said his refusal to praise or donate to President Trump contributed to the dispute with the Pentagon. OpenAI president Greg Brockman has been a staunch backer of Trump, recently donating $25 million to the MAGA Inc. Super PAC<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n