Dario Amodei said Thursday that Anthropic plans to challenge the Defense Department’s decision to label the AI firm a supply chain risk in court, a designation he called “legally indefensible.”
The statement comes a few hours after the DOD officially designated Anthropic a supply chain risk following a week-long dispute over how much control the military should have over AI systems. A supply chain risk designation can prevent a company from working with the Pentagon and its contractors. Amodei drew a firm line that Anthropic’s AI will not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or for fully autonomous weapons, but the Pentagon believed it should have unrestricted access for “all lawful purposes.”
In his statement, Amodei said the vast majority of Anthropic’s customers are unaffected by the supply chain risk designation.
“As far as our customers are concerned, it clearly only applies to customers’ use of Claude as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts,” he said.
In a preview of what Anthropic is likely to argue in court, Amodei said the department’s letter labeling the firm a supply chain risk is narrow in scope.
“It exists to protect the government rather than punish a supplier; in fact, the law requires the Secretary of War to use least necessary restrictive measures to achieve the goal of protecting the supply chain,” Amodei said. “Even for Department of War contractors, the supply chain risk designation does (and cannot) limit the use of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if these are not related to their specific Department of War contracts.”
Amodei reiterated that Anthropic had had productive conversations with the DOD over the past few days, conversations that some suspect were derailed when an internal memo he sent to staff was leaked. In it, Amodei characterized rival OpenAI’s dealings with the Defense Department as “security theater.”
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OpenAI has signed an agreement to work with the DOD in Anthropic’s place, a move that has sparked backlash among OpenAI employees.
Amodei apologized for the leak in its Thursday statement, claiming the company did not intentionally share the memo or ask others to do so. “It is not in our interest to escalate the situation,” he said.
Amodei said the memo was written within “a few hours” of a series of announcements, including a presidential Truth Social post saying Anthropic would be removed from federal systems, then Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s supply chain risk designation, and finally the Pentagon’s announcement of deal with OpenAI. He apologized for the tone, calling it “a difficult day for the company” and said the memo did not reflect his “careful or considered views.” Posted six days ago, he added that it is now an “outdated assessment.”
He concluded by saying that Anthropic’s top priority is to ensure that US soldiers and national security experts maintain access to critical tools in the midst of ongoing major combat operations. Anthropic currently supports some of the United States’ operations in Iran, and Amodei said the company would continue to provide its models to the DOD at “nominal cost” for “as long as necessary to make this transition.”
Anthropic could challenge the designation in federal court, likely in Washington, but the law behind the decision makes it harder to challenge because it limits the usual ways companies can challenge procurement decisions and gives the Pentagon broad discretion in national security matters.
Or as Dean Ball—a former Trump-era White House AI adviser who has spoken out against Hegseth’s treatment of Anthropic—put it: “Courts are pretty reluctant to second-guess the government on what is and isn’t a national security issue … There’s a very high bar to clear to do that. But it’s not impossible.”