AI company Anthropic filed two federal lawsuits on Monday against the administration of Donald Trump, accusing Pentagon officials of unlawfully retaliating against the company for its position on artificial intelligence safety.
The legal action comes after Defense Department officials designated Anthropic a supply chain risk, citing national security concerns. The move followed a statement by the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, who said Antropic would not permit Claude’s AI model to be used for autonomous weapons, or for surveillance of U.S. citizens.
According to the lawsuit, the administration’s decision effectively places the AI company on a blacklist that blocks Pentagon suppliers from using Claude. That’s an attempt to punish the company over its AI guardrails.
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The federal government retaliated against a leading frontier AI developer for adhering to its protected viewpoint on a subject of great public significance — AI safety and the limitations of its own AI model — in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States,
according to Anthropic, also adding that Trump officials “are seeking to destroy the economic value created by one of the world’s fastest-growing private companies.”
The supply-chain risk designation came after a meeting in February between Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth and Anthropic’ CEO Dario Amodei. According to national security experts, such a label is usually reserved for foreign adversary contractors that could pose a threat to U.S. interests, which makes the use of the blacklist against an American company highly unusual.
Following the designation, Donald Trump made a social media post stating that all federal agencies would stop using Anthropic’s AI tools.
While Anthropic was the first AI frontier lab used by U.S. officials on classified networks since the feud began, Pentagon officials have said Elon Musk’s xAI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT have now been cleared for use in classified systems.
Despite Anthropic’s strong resistance against the administration on lethal weaponry and mass surveillance, the company notes in it’s lawsuit that since 2024 it has collaborated with national security contractors, such as Palantir, to support the government in operations. Some of these activities include “rapid processing of complex data, identifying trends, streamlining document review, and helping government officials make more informed decisions in time sensitive situations.”
Image: Flickr/World Economic Forum/ Sandra Blaser; Edited – 10.03.2026
Image: U.S. Department of Defense / Chad J. McNeeley (Public Domain), via Wikimedia Commons. – 10.03.2026
