Pentagon ultimatum pressures Anthropic over military use of AI
Feb 28th 2026
The Defense Department has pressed Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI for surveillance and autonomous weapons, a demand the company rejected while other major AI firms are reported to have accepted similar terms and tech workers push back.
- The Defense Department demanded unrestricted access to Anthropic's models for mass surveillance and fully autonomous lethal weapons or threatened a "supply chain risk" designation.
- Anthropic refused and CEO Dario Amodei said the company would not accede while offering to partner on R and D to improve system reliability.
- The Pentagon has reportedly asked Boeing and Lockheed Martin about reliance on Anthropic and may consider invoking the Defense Production Act.
- OpenAI and xAI have reportedly agreed to similar military access terms while OpenAI is said to be seeking Anthropic-style red lines in its contracts.
- Tech workers across Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and other firms say they feel betrayed and organized groups representing about 700,000 employees signed a letter urging companies to reject the Pentagon's demands.
- Anthropic's enterprise focus may give it leverage to refuse military contracts, but the long term durability of its stance and the wider industry trajectory remain uncertain.