Pentagon designates Anthropic national security supply chain risk

The Department of War has designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk to national security. Anthropic received a letter from the department confirming the designation. The company said it does not believe the action is legally sound and that it has no choice but to challenge it in court. The letter's language indicates that the vast majority of customers are unaffected by the supply chain risk designation. The designation applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War. It does not apply to all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts. The relevant statute is narrow in scope. It exists to protect the government rather than to punish a supplier. The law requires the Secretary of War to use the least restrictive means necessary to accomplish the goal of protecting the supply chain. Even for Department of War contractors the designation does not limit uses of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if those are unrelated to their specific contracts. The company said it had been having productive conversations with the Department of War over the last several days.