Anthropic has launched a legal challenge against the US Department of Defense, filing two lawsuits that contest the Pentagon’s decision to classify the Artificial Intelligence company as a “supply chain risk” and effectively blacklist it from government contracts. The suits, filed in the northern district court of California and the US court of appeals for the Washington DC Circuit, argue that the designation is unlawful and violates Anthropic’s first amendment rights. The dispute stems from a months-long feud over Anthropic’s efforts to impose safeguards on the military’s use of its Artificial Intelligence models, particularly to prevent applications such as mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons.
The Pentagon’s formal issuance of the supply chain risk label last Thursday marks the first time the blacklisting tool has been used against a US company, and it directs any firm doing business with the government to sever ties with Anthropic, posing a significant threat to its business model. Anthropic’s lawsuit contends that the Trump administration is punishing the company for refusing to conform to the government’s ideological demands, characterizing the move as an attempt to retaliate against protected speech. In its California complaint, the company asserts that “the constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech” and describes the actions as “unprecedented and unlawful”.
The conflict is particularly striking given how deeply Anthropic’s Artificial Intelligence model, Claude, has been integrated into the Department of Defense over the past year, including use in classified systems and reported involvement in deciding where to target missile strikes in the war against Iran. Anthropic stresses that it remains committed to supporting national security uses and has previously worked with the Pentagon to adapt its systems for specialized military needs. A company spokesperson said that seeking judicial review is a necessary step to protect its business, customers and partners, while emphasizing that it will continue to pursue dialogue with the government. The lawsuit claims the administration’s actions are “harming Anthropic irreparably”, even as chief executive Dario Amodei recently told CBS News that “the impact of this designation is fairly small” and the company was “gonna be fine”. Anthropic alleges that officials are trying to “destroy the economic value” created by one of the world’s fastest-growing private companies, while the Department of Defense has not yet publicly commented on the case.
