After running afoul of the U.S. defense apparatus, Anthropic is going on offense.
On Monday, the AI developer filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration after it was labeled a “supply chain risk.” The filing is the latest salvo in the back-and-forth between Anthropic and the federal government, which escalated after the Pentagon asked it to make changes to its safety guardrails. Anthropic refused, which led the administration to retaliate.
President Donald Trump, in a social media post on February 27, called Anthropic a “radical left, woke company” run by “Leftwing nut jobs,” and he directed “EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.”
That same day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that he was “directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security. Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.” (Last year, Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, but Congress has not acted to formally change the name.)
Anthropic has responded by filing suit. “These actions are unprecedented and unlawful. The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” the court filing reads. “No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation.”
In effect, the company is saying that it is being unlawfully retaliated against for using its First Amendment rights, and also argues that Trump lacks the authority to tell federal agencies to stop using its technology or products. Hegseth’s “supply chain risk” designation would also “only extend to the use of Claude as part of Department of War contracts—it cannot affect how contractors use Claude to serve other customers,” the company said in a February 27 statement, citing federal laws.
Because of the government’s actions, Anthropic also claims that its contracts with private parties have been jeopardized and it stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
Shortly after the Trump administration’s “supply chain risk” designation, Anthropic rival OpenAI came to terms with the Pentagon, but Anthropic has seen its stature rise as a result. Claude AI, its consumer-facing app, has overtaken OpenAI’s ChatGPT in downloads over the past week—a first, according to reporting from TechCrunch.
Fast Company has reached out to both the Department of Defense and Anthropic for comment. The Defense Department replied that “as a matter of Department of War policy, we do not comment on litigation.”