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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has threatened to cut Anthropic off from his department’s supply chain if Anthropic does not agree to sign off on its technology being used in all legitimate military applications by Friday.
The threat is the latest escalation in the feud between Anthropic and the department over the AI ​​group’s refusal to give it unfettered access to its models for classified military uses, including domestic surveillance and lethal missions with no direct human control.
Hegseth summoned Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei to Washington for a meeting on Tuesday. During the tense conversation, the defense secretary threatened to cut the company out of the department’s supply chain or invoke the Defense Production Act, a Cold War-era measure that enables the president to regulate domestic industry in the interest of national defense, a person with knowledge of the talks said.
Anthropic confirmed that the meeting took place on Tuesday. “We have continued good-faith conversations about our usage policy to ensure that Anthropic can continue to support the government’s national security mission as reliably and responsibly as our models can,” it said.
Amodei has a firm grip on the company’s red lines. If terms are not agreed to by Friday evening, Anthropic will be removed from the Pentagon’s supply chain and could face legal action in response, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The disagreement threatens to escalate the rift between the White House and one of America’s leading AI laboratories.
Anthropic has pushed for strict regulation of AI and Amodei has repeatedly warned about the risks of the technology. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and his advisers have promoted a light regulatory framework.
Trump’s AI czar David Sachs has derided Anthropic as “woke” and last October accused the $380 billion company of “running a sophisticated regulatory capture strategy based on fear-mongering.”
The attacks echo criticisms of Elon Musk, whom Sachs described last year as “a good friend.” Sachs worked with Musk at PayPal and has invested in XAI and other Musk groups. When Sachs was appointed to his role he withdrew those positions.
But the Pentagon is relying on Anthropic for AI technology. The San Francisco-based company’s cloud tool is the only model to work on classified missions as a result of a partnership with Palantir.
Cutting out the Pentagon supply chain is an extreme measure typically reserved for companies linked to foreign adversaries. But at the same time, deploying the DPA would demonstrate that Anthropic’s technology is critical to Pentagon operations.
Invoking the DPA would allow the Pentagon to use Anthropic’s equipment without any compromise.
The Act gives the Administration the ability to “allocate materials, services, and facilities” for national defense. The Trump and Joe Biden administrations used the act to address medical supply shortages during the coronavirus pandemic, and Trump has also used the DPA to order an increase in U.S. production of critical minerals.
Hegseth is in talks with AI labs including Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI to replace Anthropic and integrate their technology into classified military systems.
People familiar with the talks said Anthropic has expressed particular concerns about its models being used for lethal missions with no humans involved, arguing that state-of-the-art AI models are not reliable enough to be trusted in those contexts.
He said it has also pushed for new rules to control the use of AI models for large-scale domestic surveillance, even if it is legal under existing rules.
The Pentagon has emphasized open use of the technology, aiming to expand the set of tools at its disposal to counter threats and conduct military operations.
As the department released its AI strategy last month, Hegseth said in a memo that “AI-enabled warfare and AI-enabled capability development will redefine the character of military affairs over the next decade”.
He said the U.S. military must “increase its edge” over foreign rivals by making soldiers “more lethal and efficient” and that the AI ​​race is “driven by the rapid pace” of innovation coming from the private sector.
The decision to remove Anthropic from the Defense Department supply chain will have a significant impact on national security work as well as the company, which has a $200 million contract with the department.
It will also impact partners, including Palantir, that use Anthropic’s models.
The cloud was used in the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January. People familiar with the matter said that mission prompted questions from Anthropic about exactly how to use its models.
A person with knowledge of Tuesday’s meeting said Amodei stressed to Hegseth that his company has never objected to legitimate military operations.
The Defense Department declined to comment.
