Anthropic on Monday sued the Trump administration for effectively blacklisting the AI firm after it sought to block the Pentagon from using its chatbot for mass surveillance and weaponry.
The San Francisco-based tech firm accused War Secretary Pete Hegseth of designating Anthropic a supply-chain risk – making it the first US company to bear that label – as retaliation for trying to limit the Pentagon’s use of its Claude chatbot.
“The actions are unprecedented and unlawful,” the company said in a complaint filed Monday in San Francisco federal court. “The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech.”
The Pentagon declined to comment, saying it does not address ongoing litigation.
Anthropic’s lawsuit came days after its CEO Dario Amodei apologized for a leaked 1,600-word missive bashing the Trump administration – though he added that the company had “no choice” but to challenge the supply-chain risk label in court.
The exec apologized for “the tone” of his fiery letter to staffers, which accused the Department of War for 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 last Thursday.
“Anthropic did not leak this post nor direct anyone else to do so — it is not in our interest to escalate this situation.”
Amodei said his inflammatory comments came hours after Trump blasted Anthropic staff as “Leftwing nut jobs” and Hegseth announced his plans to label the company 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 Pentagon’s supply-chain risk label — previously used only for foreign firms that present national security threats, like Chinese tech firm Huawei Technologies — is a “scarlet letter designation for Anthropic,” Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Monday note.
It will force defense contractors to certify that they do not use Anthropic’s AI models in their work with the government.
It’s unclear if the business will face broader restrictions after Hegseth previously said Anthropic would be barred from “any commercial activity” with any company that works with the feds – including customers like Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Google.
Anthropic, however, claimed the “vast majority” of its customers will not be impacted by the designation, according to Amodei’s note last week.
The company 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 Hegseth blasted the firm for seeking exemptions during contract negotiations on the use of its models for mass surveillance of citizens and weaponry, insisting that the Pentagon should be able to use AI tools for “all lawful purposes.”
OpenAI then swooped in with a deal to provide AI services to the Pentagon.
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.
He said 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.”
