Defense secretary Pete Hegseth designates Anthropic a supply chain risk
US President Donald Trump (R) looks on as US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela | AFP via Getty Images
Nearly two hours after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was banning Anthropic products from the federal government, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took it one step further and announced that he was now designating the AI company as a "supply-chain risk," which Anthropic says it is willing to challenge in court.
The decision could immediately impact numerous major tech companies that use Claude in their line of work for the Pentagon, including Palantir and AWS. It is not immediately clear to what extent the Pentagon may blacklist companies that contract with Claude for other services outside of national security, A …
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Defense secretary Pete Hegseth designates Anthropic a supply chain risk
Anthropic says it will challenge the designation in court.
Anthropic says it will challenge the designation in court.
by Tina Nguyen
Updated Feb 28, 2026, 2:19 AM UTC
[Image: US-VENEZUELA-CONFLICT-TRUMP]
[Image: US-VENEZUELA-CONFLICT-TRUMP]
US President Donald Trump (R) looks on as US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks to the press following US military actions in Venezuela
AFP via Getty Images
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Tina Nguyen is a Senior Reporter for The Verge and author of Regulator, covering the second Trump administration, political influencers, tech lobbying and Big Tech vs. Big Government.
Nearly two hours after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he was banning Anthropic products from the federal government, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth took it one step further and announced that he was now designating the AI company as a “supply-chain risk,” which Anthropic says it is willing to challenge in court.
The decision could immediately impact numerous major tech companies that use Claude in their line of work for the Pentagon, including Palantir and AWS. It is not immediately clear to what extent the Pentagon may blacklist companies that contract with Claude for other services outside of national security, Anthropic has responded, claiming the designation applies only to the use of its Claude AI on Department of Defense contract work specifically.
After a week of tense negotiations over the company’s acceptable use policies, the Pentagon gave Anthropic an ultimatum: agree by Friday, 5:30 PM EST, to let the Pentagon use Claude for “all legal purposes,” including for autonomous lethal weapons without human oversight and mass surveillance, or be designated a supply-chain risk. The designation, which is typically used for companies with ties to foreign governments that pose national security risks to the United States, will bar any company that uses Anthropic products from working with the Department of Defense.
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In his tweet posted just after 5PM ET, Hegseth broadened the designation to encompass companies doing “any commercial activity with Anthropic,” reiterating Trump’s mandate that companies had six months to divest themselves from Anthropic products.
“Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic,” he wrote. “Instead, @AnthropicAI and its CEO @DarioAmodei have chosen duplicity. Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of ‘effective altruism,’ they have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission - a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives.”
Hegseth, as Secretary of Defense, has the ability to label a company a “supply-chain risk” at his own discretion. But the decision comes after the Pentagon made several other attempts to compel Anthropic to let them use Claude as they wished, including the threat to invoke the Defense Production Act.
Anthropic responded to both the Department of Defense and the White House on Friday evening, saying in a blog post that it had not received direct communication from either organization about the status of their negotiations. According to Anthropic, despite what Hegseth’s tweet implied, it is telling customers that “The Secretary does not have the statutory authority to back up this statement.”
The company argues that the designation can only apply “to the use of Claude as part of Department of War contracts—it cannot affect how contractors use Claude to serve other customers,” and that merely having a contract with Anthropic is irrelevant.
As far as the designation itself and the DoD policy pushed by Hegseth, Anthropic says it’s willing to go to court to settle the matter:
Designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk would be an unprecedented action—one historically reserved for US adversaries, never before publicly applied to an American company. We are deeply saddened by these developments. As the first frontier AI company to deploy models in the US government’s classified networks, Anthropic has supported American warfighters since June 2024 and has every intention of continuing to do so.
We believe this designation would both be legally unsound and set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government.
No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons. We will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth:
This week, Anthropic delivered a master class in arrogance and betrayal as well as a textbook case of how not to do business with the United States Government or the Pentagon.
Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.
Instead, @AnthropicAI and its CEO @DarioAmodei, have chosen duplicity. Cloaked in the sanctimonious rhetoric of “effective altruism,” they have attempted to strong-arm the United States military into submission - a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives.
The Terms of Service of Anthropic’s defective altruism will never outweigh the safety, the readiness, or the lives of American troops on the battlefield.
Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military. That is unacceptable.
As President Trump stated on Truth Social, the Commander-in-Chief and the American people alone will determine the destiny of our armed forces, not unelected tech executives.
Anthropic’s stance is fundamentally incompatible with American principles. Their relationship with the United States Armed Forces and the Federal Government has therefore been permanently altered.
In conjunction with the President’s directive for the Federal Government to cease all use of Anthropic’s technology, I am 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. Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.
America’s warfighters will never be held hostage by the ideological whims of Big Tech. This decision is final.
Update, February 27th: Added response from Anthropic.
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- Tina Nguyen
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[Original source](https://www.theverge.com/policy/886632/pentagon-designates-anthropic-supply-chain-risk-ai-standoff)