Pentagon Notifies Lawmakers Anthropic Is a Supply-Chain Risk

The Pentagon has officially notified US lawmakers that it’s determined Anthropic PBC and its products pose a risk to the US supply chain, according to correspondence obtained by Bloomberg Government.

The Pentagon’s finding threatens to disrupt both the company and the US military, which has relied heavily on Anthropic’s software. Until recently, Anthropic provided the only AI system that could operate in the Pentagon’s classified cloud. Its Claude Gov tool has become a favored option among defense personnel for its ease of use.

The use of Anthropic’s products and services “presents a significant supply chain risk,” and the designation is “necessary to protect our national security,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in the notification to lawmakers. The Pentagon has also notified Anthropic.

Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei had been negotiating for weeks with Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, to agree on a contract governing the Pentagon’s access to Anthropic’s technology.

Talks broke down last week after the startup demanded assurances that its AI wouldn’t be used for mass surveillance of Americans or autonomous weapons deployment. Hegseth then declared in a Feb. 27 post on X that Anthropic posed a supply-chain risk, a designation typically reserved for US adversaries.

Hegseth said in his correspondence to lawmakers that the determination “is based in part on a risk analysis,” by the Defense Department and input from senior personnel who said that “restrictions on the use of its products and services introduces national security risks.”

The defense chief added that “less intrusive measures are not reasonably available to reduce such supply chain risk.”

The notification went out to House and Senate leaders, as well as several committees including the Appropriations, Energy and Commerce, Armed Services and Intelligence panels.