Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has apologized for bashing the Trump administration in an explosive letter to staffers as he gears up for a court battle over the Pentagon’s blacklisting of his AI firm.
The exec said he’s sorry for “the tone” of a 1,600-word internal missive that accused the Department of War of targeting Anthropic for not giving “dictator-style praise to Trump.”
“I also want to apologize directly for a post internal to the company that was leaked to the press yesterday,” Amodei wrote in a note published on his company’s website Thursday. “Anthropic did not leak this post nor direct anyone else to do so — it is not in our interest to escalate this situation.”
He went on to note his inflammatory comments came hours after Trump blasted Anthropic staff as “Leftwing nut jobs” and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on X he would designate Anthropic a “supply-chain risk.”
“It was a difficult day for the company, and I apologize for the tone of the post,” Amodei wrote. “It does not reflect my careful or considered views.”
The Post has sough comment from the White House and Department of War.
The Pentagon on Thursday reportedly told Anthropic about its pariah status, which bars the government from doing business with the AI company.
The designation – which was previously reserved for foreign firms like Chinese tech giant Huawei – will require defense contractors to certify that they do not use Anthropic’s AI models in their work with the government.
It’s unclear if the company will face broader restrictions after Hegseth said Anthropic would be barred from “any commercial activity” with any company that works with the feds – potentially including Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Google.
Microsoft, which has plans to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic, said Thursday that Anthropic’s AI models will remain available to its customers, except the Department of War.
Amodei claimed the “vast majority” of Anthropic’s customers will not be impacted by the designation.
“As we stated last Friday, we do not believe, and have never believed, that it is the role of Anthropic or any private company to be involved in operational decision-making – that is the role of the military,” Amodei said in a statement Thursday.
“Our only concerns have been our exceptions on fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance, which relate to high-level usage areas, and not operational decision-making,” he wrote, adding that the company has been involved in “productive conversations” with the Department of War over the past few days.
The exec also repeated Anthropic’s threat to sue over the designation, stating, “we see no choice but to challenge it in court.”
Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Pentagon in July that made it the sole provider of AI models on the government’s classified networks.
But last week, Hegseth blasted the company for seeking exemptions on the use of its models, insisting that the Pentagon should be able to use AI tools for “all lawful purposes.”
OpenAI then announced it would step in to provide AI services to the Pentagon – stoking backlash from AI workers concerned about the risk of new tech being used for surveillance of citizens.
In his memo to staffers later that day, Amodei said Anthropic was being punished because he didn’t “donate to Trump” – while “OpenAI/Greg have donated a lot,” referring to OpenAI president Greg Brockman, the Information reported.
Amodei – who donated to Democratic former Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign – blasted OpenAI and the Pentagon for allegedly smearing his company’s name.
“I want to be very clear on the messaging that is coming from OpenAI, and the mendacious nature of it,” he wrote in the note.
He added that “a lot of OpenAI and [Department of War] messaging just straight up lies about these issues or tries to confuse them,” insisting that OpenAI’s contract terms, for example, were never offered to Anthropic.
Altman was “presenting himself as someone who wants to ‘set the same contract for everyone in the industry,’” while “behind the scenes” working with the Department of War to replace Anthropic “the instant we are designated a supply chain risk,” Amodei wrote.
OpenAI’s deal includes safeguards that are “maybe 20% real and 80% safety theater,” he added.
During a Morgan Stanley technology conference on Thursday, Altman pushed back on the criticism – and took a few jabs at Anthropic.
“The government is supposed to be more powerful than private companies,” he said, adding that it’s “bad for society” if companies start abandoning their commitment to the democratic process because “some people don’t like the person or people currently in charge.”
Altman acknowledged, however, that the timing of OpenAI’s deal – which came just hours after talks with Anthropic fell apart – “looked opportunistic and sloppy.”
