Anthropic has received a formal letter from the Department of War designating the company a supply chain risk to national security. The AI firm states this designation, effective March 4th, lacks legal foundation and will be challenged in court.

The company emphasizes the designation's narrow scope, applying only to specific Department of War contracts involving Claude, not all customer use. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stresses their productive pre-designation discussions with the DoD about serving national security needs within legal boundaries, such as supporting intelligence analysis and operational planning for frontline warfighters. Anthropic's core concern remains protecting exceptions for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance, not operational decision-making, which they assert is the military's role. The company also apologized for an internal post leaked during the designation announcement, clarifying it was an out-of-date reaction to a chaotic day and does not reflect their current views.