In a post on Truth Social, President Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using all Anthropic products after the company entered into a public dispute with the Department of Defense. The president allowed a six-month phase-out period for departments that use the product, but emphasized that Anthropic is no longer welcome as a federal contractor.
“We don’t need them, we don’t want them and we will never do business with them again,” the president wrote in the post.
Notably, the president’s post did not mention any plans to designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk, as he had previously said as a result. But a follow-up tweet from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth conveyed the threat well.
“Following the President’s directive that the federal government cease all use of Anthropic technology, I am directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic as a supply chain risk to national security,” Secretary Hegseth wrote. “Effective immediately, contractors, suppliers or partners doing business with the U.S. military will not be permitted to conduct any commercial activities with Anthropic.”
The Pentagon’s dispute centered on Anthropic’s refusal to use its AI models to power large-scale domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, which Secretary Hegseth deemed overly restrictive.
CEO Dario Amodei reiterated his position in a public post Thursday, refusing to compromise on both points.
“It is our greatest preference to continue to serve the Department of Defense and our warfighters by putting in place the two safeguards we have requested,” Amodei wrote at the time. “If a department chooses to offboard Anthropic, we will work to ensure a smooth transition to another provider while avoiding disruption to ongoing military plans, operations, or other critical missions.”
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OpenAI reportedly supported Anthropic’s decision. According to the BBC, CEO Sam Altman sent a memo to employees on Thursday saying he shared the same “red line” and would also reject any OpenAI-related defense contracts for uses “that are illegal or unsuitable for cloud deployment, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous attack weapons.”
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, who had a very public breakup with Altman in November 2023 and later co-founded his own AI company, also joined the conversation on Friday, writing about X: “It’s great that Anthropic hasn’t backed down, and it’s important that OpenAI has taken a similar stance.”
But just hours after the Trump administration ordered federal agencies to cut ties with Anthropic, OpenAI announced a deal with the Defense Department to fill the void, saying Altman maintained the same core principles Anthropic had fought for: a ban on domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
According to the New York Times, OpenAI and the government began meeting on a potential partnership starting this Wednesday.
There will definitely be more twists and turns in the future.
Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google each signed contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense in July. Although some Google employees have spoken out in support of Anthropic, neither Google nor its parent company has yet commented.
Update: This article has been updated with additional reporting..
