Anthropic Sues Pentagon Over Supply Chain Risk Label
Anthropic filed dual lawsuits after the Pentagon designated it a supply chain risk, with over 30 engineers from OpenAI and Google backing the company's legal challenge.
Key Takeaway
Pentagon weaponizing supply chain labels against US companies that refuse military AI deployment sets dangerous precedent.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moved to label Anthropic as a supply chain risk last month after the company refused to allow unrestricted military use of its Claude AI system. The Pentagon finalized the designation on March 3.
Anthropic sued 17 government agencies and officials Monday in California federal court, calling the actions an "unprecedented and unlawful campaign of retaliation." The company also filed suit in Washington, D.C. appeals court the same day. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are among those named in the lawsuit.
The company said in court filings that it maintained technology restrictions against lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance of Americans as part of its government contracts. Anthropic told the court it "has never tested Claude for those uses" and currently lacks confidence the system would "function reliably or safely if used to support lethal autonomous warfare."
Trump issued a directive ordering federal employees to stop using Claude after Hegseth demanded the company "discard its usage restrictions altogether." This marks the first time an American company has received a supply chain risk designation — a label the Pentagon typically reserves for companies tied to foreign adversaries. The US government and Pentagon have used Anthropic's services since 2024, with Claude becoming the first AI deployed for classified government work.
Over 30 AI engineers and scientists from OpenAI and Google, including Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, filed a legal brief supporting Anthropic. The group warned that "if allowed to proceed, this effort to punish one of the leading U.S. AI companies will undoubtedly have consequences for the United States' industrial and scientific competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence and beyond."
Anthropic argued in its lawsuit that the Constitution "does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech," with the case expected to proceed through federal courts on March 10.
This article was written based on reporting from Cointelegraph.
