US President Donald Trump on Friday ordered all federal agencies to immediately stop using technology developed by artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, marking a dramatic escalation in an ongoing dispute between the US government and the San Francisco-based startup.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said he was directing “every federal agency” to halt all work involving Anthropic’s AI systems. He added that while most agencies must end their use of the company’s tools right away, the Defense Department and certain others would be given a six-month window to phase out the technology.
The move came alongside a separate action from the Pentagon, which designated Anthropic as a “supply-chain risk.” That label is typically applied to companies linked to adversarial nations and could prevent defense contractors from incorporating Anthropic’s AI into projects tied to the Department of Defense. The US defense industrial base includes tens of thousands of contractors, from smaller suppliers to major publicly traded corporations.
The decision follows weeks of tension between the Pentagon and Anthropic over how the military may deploy artificial intelligence in warfare. The Friday announcement coincided with a deadline previously set by the Defense Department to address the escalating dispute.
Anthropic, which secured a Pentagon contract last year with a ceiling value of $200 million, did not immediately comment on the development. However, the company signaled it plans to challenge the Pentagon’s supply-chain risk designation in court, setting the stage for a potential legal battle.
Although Trump stopped short of invoking the Defense Production Act — a powerful law that allows the government to compel companies to prioritize national defense needs — he warned of further consequences if Anthropic fails to cooperate with the phaseout. The president said he would use the “full power of the presidency,” including possible civil and criminal measures, if necessary.
The setback comes at a sensitive time for Anthropic, one of the leading players in the AI race. The company has been competing aggressively for government and enterprise contracts, especially in the national security space, as it reportedly considers a future public offering. It has said no final decision on an IPO has been made.
At the heart of the dispute are concerns about guardrails on military use of AI. Anthropic has sought assurances that its technology would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or for widespread domestic surveillance. The Pentagon has maintained that it has no plans to pursue such applications.
Anthropic has previously stated that it was the first major AI lab to deploy its models on classified government networks through Amazon’s cloud infrastructure and to develop tailored systems for national security customers. Its flagship AI model, Claude, is already used across segments of the US intelligence community and armed services.
The controversy has drawn political criticism. Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, questioned whether the administration’s decision was grounded in national security analysis or influenced by political factors.
The clash reflects a broader and long-running tension between Silicon Valley and Washington over military use of artificial intelligence. As far back as 2018, employees at Google protested the company’s involvement in Pentagon drone analysis projects, sparking internal unrest and public debate. Since then, major technology firms including Amazon and Microsoft have continued to pursue defense contracts, while ethical concerns about so-called “killer robots” and autonomous weapons systems persist.
Meanwhile, conflicts in regions such as Ukraine and Gaza have increasingly featured automated and AI-driven battlefield technologies, intensifying the global debate over how far governments should go in deploying artificial intelligence in warfare.
Also Read: Anthropic Unveils AI Feature in Claude Code to Scan Codebases and Suggest Patches
