Anthropic is at the center of a legal battle with the Pentagon , as nearly 40 employees from OpenAI and Google filed a brief in support of the artificial intelligence company's lawsuit. The dispute began when Anthropic refused to remove security restrictions from its technology for military use.
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On Monday, Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense , challenging its designation as a “ supply chain risk .” Hours later, prominent figures in the industry, including Jeff Dean , Google ’s chief scientist and head of Gemini , signed the memorandum of support . The signatories describe themselves as “ engineers, researchers, scientists, and other professionals working in U.S. artificial intelligence laboratories .”
The crisis began when Anthropic refused to grant unrestricted access to its technology for military purposes. The company had set two “red lines”: a ban on use for mass domestic surveillance and for fully autonomous weapons that can kill without human intervention. When negotiations collapsed, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went ahead with the unprecedented designation of Anthropic as a national security risk.
This designation has serious consequences that extend beyond Anthropic. It not only excludes the company from $200 million, but also imposes a “blacklist” on other companies that use Anthropic in their work for the Pentagon. This forces contractors to abandon Claude if they want to keep their lucrative contracts.
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Anthropic was founded with the goal of developing safe and responsible AI systems, differentiating itself from competitors like OpenAI that prioritize rapid expansion of capabilities. The company is the only one to have been included in classified U.S. materials, according to defense officials, which makes the Pentagon ’s decision particularly paradoxical.
The memorandum from employees at Google and OpenAI stresses that designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk “constitutes inappropriate retaliation that harms the public interest.” The signatories argue that the concerns behind Anthropic “are real and demand a response.”
Specifically, the memo states that “mass domestic surveillance powered by artificial intelligence poses profound risks to democratic governance — even in responsible hands” and that “fully autonomous lethal weapons systems present risks that must also be addressed.”
Legal experts have questioned the legality of Anthropic as a supply chain risk. While the Secretary of Defense has the legislative authority to make such designations, the laws do not authorize broader bans on military contractors. Anthropic alleges that the government’s actions violate the First Amendmentby retaliating for the company’s public stance on the safety of artificial intelligence.
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President Trump reinforced this action by ordering all federal agencies to “ immediately cease all use of Anthropic ’s technology ,” citing the company’s refusal to support autonomous lethal weapons and mass surveillance capabilities. More than a dozen federal agencies are affected by these restrictions.
