Hegseth declares Anthropic a supply chain risk, restricting military contractors from doing business with AI giant

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deemed artificial intelligence firm Anthropic a "supply chain risk to national security" on Friday, following days of increasingly heated public conflict over the company's effort to place guardrails on the Pentagon's use of its technology.  Jo Ling Kent contributed to this report. In:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deemed artificial intelligence firm Anthropic a "supply chain risk to national security" on Friday, following days of increasingly heated public conflict over the company's effort to place guardrails on the Pentagon's use of its technology. 

Hegseth declared on X that effective immediately, "no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic." The decision could have a wide-ranging impact, given the sheer number of companies that contract with the Pentagon.

"America's warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech. This decision is final," Hegseth wrote.

President Trump announced earlier Friday that all federal agencies must "immediately" stop using Anthropic, though the Defense Department and certain other agencies can continue using its AI technology for up to six months while transitioning to other services.

Anthropic vowed in a statement to "challenge any supply chain risk designation in court," calling the move "legally unsound" and warning it would set a "dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government." The company argued that Hegseth doesn't have the legal authority to ban military contractors from doing business with Anthropic, since a risk designation would only apply to contractors' work with the Pentagon.