Anthropic says Department of War will label it a supply chain risk after talks over surveillance and autonomous weapons
Feb 28th 2026
Anthropic says the Department of War plans to label it a supply chain risk after talks stalled over mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons, and the company says it will pursue legal action while assuring commercial customers their access is unchanged.
- Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted that he is directing the Department of War to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk.
- Anthropic says negotiations stalled over two exceptions it requested: bans on mass domestic surveillance of Americans and on using its models for fully autonomous weapons.
- The company says it has not received direct communication from the Department of War or the White House and will challenge any supply chain risk designation in court.
- Anthropic argues such a designation would be unprecedented for a US company and says 10 USC 3252 can only limit use of Claude on Department of War contracts, not commercial or individual customers.
- Anthropic says it has supported US classified networks and warfighters since June 2024, that the exceptions have not affected any government mission to date, and that commercial access to Claude remains unaffected.