On February 27, 2026, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on X that he was directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk. This action followed months of negotiations that reached an impasse over two exceptions Anthropic had requested to the lawful use of its AI model, Claude: mass domestic surveillance of Americans and fully autonomous weapons.
Anthropic had not yet received direct communication from the Department of War or the White House regarding the status of the negotiations.
The company stated it had tried in good faith to reach an agreement with the Department of War, making clear its support for all lawful uses of AI for national security aside from the two narrow exceptions mentioned above. According to Anthropic, these exceptions had not affected a single government mission to date.
Anthropic maintained its exceptions for two reasons. First, the company does not believe that today's frontier AI models are reliable enough to be used in fully autonomous weapons, arguing that allowing current models to be deployed in this way would endanger America's warfighters and civilians. Second, Anthropic believes that mass domestic surveillance of Americans constitutes a violation of fundamental rights.
Designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk would be an unprecedented action-one historically reserved for US adversaries and never before publicly applied to an American company. Anthropic expressed deep sadness over these developments. As the first frontier AI company to deploy models in the US government's classified networks, the company has supported American warfighters since June 2024 and stated its full intention of continuing to do so.
Anthropic believes this designation would be both legally unsound and would set a dangerous precedent for any American company that negotiates with the government.
The company declared that no amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War would change its position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, and that it would challenge any supply chain risk designation in court.
Implications for Anthropic's customers
Secretary Hegseth implied the designation would restrict anyone who does business with the military from doing business with Anthropic. However, Anthropic contends the Secretary does not have the statutory authority to back up this statement. Legally, a supply chain risk designation under 10 USC 3252 can only extend to the use of Claude as part of Department of War contracts-it cannot affect how contractors use Claude to serve other customers.
In practice, this means:
- Individual customers or those holding a commercial contract with Anthropic would see their access to Claude-through the API, claude.ai, or any of Anthropic's products-completely unaffected.
- Department of War contractors would only be affected in their use of Claude on Department of War contract work if the designation were formally adopted. Use for any other purpose would remain unaffected.
Anthropic's sales and support teams are standing by to answer any questions customers may have.
The company expressed deep gratitude to its users, and to the industry peers, policymakers, veterans, and members of the public who have voiced their support in recent days. Anthropic stated that above all else, its priorities are to protect its customers from any disruption caused by these extraordinary events and to work with the Department of War to ensure a smooth transition-for the department, for the troops, and for American military operations.