New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin and CEO and co-founder of Anthropic Dario Amodei speak onstage during the 2025 New York Times Dealbook Summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 03, 2025 in New York City.
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The Department of Defense has officially informed Anthropic’s leadership that the company and its products have been designated a supply chain risk, effective immediately, according to a senior department official.
“From the very beginning, this has been about one fundamental principle: the military being able to use technology for all lawful purposes,” the official told CNBC. “The military will not allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability and put our warfighters at risk.”
Anthropic is the only American company ever to be publicly named a supply chain risk, as the designation has traditionally been used against foreign adversaries. The label will require defense vendors and contractors to certify that they don’t use Anthropic’s models in their work with the Pentagon.
The formal designation marks the latest development in the ongoing clash between Anthropic and the Pentagon, which have been at odds over the startup’s artificial intelligence models, known as Claude, can be used.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a post on Friday that said he was directing the agency to label Anthropic a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security,” but that alone wasn’t enough to serve as an official designation. President Donald Trump also directed federal agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology on Friday.
In an interview with Politico on Thursday, President Donald Trump said he “fired” Anthropic.
“Anthropic is in trouble because I fired [them] like dogs, because they shouldn’t have done that,” he told Politico.
Anthropic said in a statement Friday that it will challenge “any supply chain risk designation in court.”
Palantir shares fell 2% on Thursday. The software and services provider, which counts on government contracts for about 60% of its U.S. revenue, partners with Anthropic for its work with military and defense agencies, an agreement that was signed in late 2024.
Analysts at Piper Sandler wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday that Anthropic is “heavily embedded in the Military and the Intelligence community” and that moving off the company’s technology could “pose some short-term disruptions” to Palantir’s operations.
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