Dario Amodei said Thursday that Anthropic plans to challenge the Defense Department’s decision to name the AI company a supply chain risk in court, a designation he called “legally absurd.”
The statement comes hours after the department formally designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk following a weeks-long dispute over how much control the military should have over AI systems. Designation of a supply chain risk could prevent the company from working with the Pentagon and its contractors. Amodei has drawn a hard line that Anthropic AI should not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or private weapons, but the Pentagon believes it should have unrestricted access for “all legitimate purposes.”
In his statement, Amodei said most of Anthropic’s customers were not affected by the supply chain risk.
“Regarding our customers, apparently it only applies to Claude’s use by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all of Claude’s use is with clients who have such contracts,” he said.
As an overview of what Anthropic is likely to argue against in court, Amodei said the Department’s letter calling the company for procurement risk is too small.
“It’s there to protect the government rather than punish the supplier; in fact, the law requires the Secretary of War to implement it austerity measures are required to achieve the objective of securing the supply chain,” said Amodei.” “Even for Department of Defense contractors, the supply chain risk designation does not limit Claude’s use or business relationship with Anthropic if that is not related to their Department of Defense contracts.”
Amodei emphasized that Anthropic had good discussions with the Ministry in the past few days, discussions that some suspects found to have been interrupted when an internal memo sent to employees was leaked. In it, Amdodei described rival OpenAI’s collaboration with the Department of Defense as “security theater.”
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OpenAI has signed an agreement with the Department of Defense on the Anthropic space, a move that has caused backlash from OpenAI staff.
Amodei apologized for the leak of his statement on Thursday, saying the company did not intentionally share the memo or instruct anyone else to do so. “We don’t want to escalate this situation,” he said.
Amodei said the memo was written “within hours” of a series of announcements, including Truth Social’s president’s letter saying Anthropic would be removed from government programs, then Defense Secretary Hegseth’s name on supply risks, and finally the announcement of the Pentagon’s deal with OpenAI. He apologized for the tone, calling it a “difficult day for the company” and said the memo did not reflect his “careful or considered views.” Written six days ago, he added, it is now “an outdated test.”
He concluded that Anthropic’s top priority is to ensure that America’s military and national security professionals maintain access to critical equipment during the ongoing war. Anthropic currently supports some US operations in Iran, and Amodei said the company will continue to provide its models to the Department of Defense “at regular cost” “as long as it is needed to make that transition.”
Anthropic could challenge the ruling in federal court, likely in Washington, but the law behind the ruling makes it difficult to enter the fray because it limits the usual ways companies can challenge government procurement decisions and gives the Pentagon broad discretion in national security matters.
Or as Dean Ball — a former Trump-era White House adviser on AI who spoke out against Hegseth’s Anthropic administration — put it: “Courts are reluctant to second-guess the government about what is and isn’t a matter of national security…There’s a very high line one needs to clear to do that. But it doesn’t.”
