Anthropic Apologizes for Memo Leak

“Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei apologized for a leaked memo in which he questioned the Trump administration's motives for declaring his artificial-intelligence company a supply-chain risk and severing its government relationships.

 

But Amodei said Anthropic will challenge the designation in court, saying, "we do not believe this action is legally sound."

 

The Defense Department on Thursday formally notified Anthropic's leadership that the company and its AI tools present security threats, a senior Pentagon official said.

 

The action, normally reserved for businesses from foreign adversaries, marked the latest escalation of a weekslong feud between the startup and Pentagon.

 

The Pentagon wants Anthropic to let it use AI in all lawful use cases, while the company is fighting for explicit guarantees that its technology won't be used in autonomous weapons and for mass domestic surveillance.

 

The official said the military wouldn't allow a vendor to insert itself into the chain of command and put members of the armed services at risk by restricting the lawful use of a critical capability.

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he would issue the supply-chain risk notice, but both sides had continued talking in hopes of finding a deal, people familiar with the matter said.

 

"I want to end all speculation: There is no active [Defense Department] negotiation with Anthropic," Emil Michael, the undersecretary of defense for research and engineering, said on X Thursday.

 

The Pentagon's move could have far-reaching consequences for Anthropic partners and investors, including Lockheed Martin, Amazon.com and Alphabet's Google.

 

It is one of the first times the supply-chain-risk designation has been applied to a U.S. company, a move that tech analysts warn could have a chilling effect on other businesses wanting to do business with the government.

 

"This reckless action is shortsighted, self-destructive and a gift to our adversaries," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.). "The government openly attacking an American company for refusing to compromise its own safety measures is something we expect from China, not the United States."

 

The supply-chain-risk designation can be used broadly or in a narrowly tailored way. Hegseth's post last week said any company working with the military can't do business with Anthropic, a directive that some analysts said goes beyond the Pentagon's legal authority. Those analysts said the Defense Department could only tell companies not to use Claude specifically in their work with the Pentagon.

 

Thursday's move came a day after the Information reported that Amodei sent Anthropic staff a memo last week stating that the administration is targeting the company because it hasn't "given dictator-style praise to Trump" and has fought against the administration's AI agenda.

 

The memo, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, also criticized rival OpenAI, which accepted a deal with the Defense Department to have its systems used in classified systems.” [1]

 

1.  U.S. News: Anthropic Apologizes for Memo Leak. Ramkumar, Amrith.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 06 Mar 2026: A3.