Anthropic vows to sue Pentagon over supply chain risk label

Anthropic is taking the U.S. Department of Defense to court after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth classified the company as a supply chain risk under 10 USC 3252 -- a legal designation previously applied only to foreign adversaries. The company says it refused Pentagon demands to build autonomous weapons systems and enable mass domestic surveillance, and calls the resulting classification "legally unsound," warning it would "set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government."

As we reported yesterday, the designation followed President Trump's directive for all federal agencies to immediately cease use of Anthropic technology. Now Anthropic is escalating its response with a legal challenge. The classification applies only to direct Pentagon contracts -- commercial customers, API users, and claude.ai subscribers are unaffected. OpenAI, which holds the same stated prohibitions on autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, signed the Pentagon deal Anthropic declined. A court victory for Anthropic could limit the government's ability to use supply chain risk statutes as a negotiating tool against domestic companies.