The Trump administration lifted emergency export controls on Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence models on Tuesday night, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — abruptly ending a bitter standoff that disrupted the global tech sector.
“Anthropic has agreed to proactively detect and address security risks associated with the models; to work diligently with the US government on protocols and standards and releases for Mythos, Fable, and future models; and to inform the U.S. government of any malicious activity,” Lutnick wrote in a letter obtained by The Post.
“The controls … are withdrawn. A license is no longer required for the export, reexport, or in-country transfer, including deemed export or deemed reexport, of the Mythos or Fable models,” he added.
The move cancelled a June 12 White House directive that banned all foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic’s flagship Fable 5 and Mythos 5 systems.
“We’ve received notice that the Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5,” Anthropic wrote on X. “We’ll begin restoring access tomorrow, and will share an update soon.”
The government previously said it disabled the cutting-edge software worldwide because the San Francisco-based startup could not reliably filter out foreign users in real time.
The sudden policy reversal follows intense corporate lobbying and back-channel negotiations between Anthropic executives and Lutnick.
The Post previously revealed those talks, noting President Trump shifted his stance after meeting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the Group of Seven summit in France.
Tuesday’s rollback was poised to deliver immediate relief to the broader technology market. Enterprise clients faced significant operational bottlenecks during the nearly three-week blackout.
“Under President Trump’s leadership the United States is the undisputed winner in the AI race,” White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles wrote on X.
“My gratitude to companies across industries who continue to work closely with the White House to implement the President’s EO: ‘Promoting Advanced AI Innovation and Security.’”
Major corporations rely heavily on Anthropic’s models for complex data analysis, while commercial developers use the platform to accelerate software coding.
The initial government crackdown stemmed from a classified cybersecurity evaluation. US intelligence agencies discovered the Mythos model could expose hidden vulnerabilities in secure government computer code, and officials quickly dusted off decades-old, hardware-focused export laws to mandate the software ban.
Tech industry advocates condemned the restriction as arbitrary. They said rival models from companies like OpenAI possess identical capabilities but avoid government interference.
Anthropic has previously clashed with Washington over defense contracts. The startup refused to allow the military to integrate its tools into autonomous weapons systems, prompting the War Department to label Anthropic a supply-chain risk. A federal judge blocked the designation in March.
Leaked internal chats have highlighted deep anger among Anthropic employees. Some staffers accused the White House of punishing the company for its strict corporate ethics policies.
Tech analysts view the costly disruption as a stark warning for Silicon Valley.
The Post has approached Anthropic, the White House and the Department of Commerce for comment,
