Anthropic is reportedly back in talks with the Defense Department

Source: Engadget

Anthropic is reportedly trying to reach a new deal with the U.S. Defense Department to avoid being labeled a supply‑chain risk. According to reporting from the Financial Times and Bloomberg, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has resumed talks with the agency about the use of its AI models, meeting with Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.

Background

• Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the Defense Department in 2025.
• Negotiations stalled when the two sides could not agree on contract language that would prevent the company’s technology from being used for mass surveillance.
• The Department threatened to cancel the existing contract and label Anthropic a “supply‑chain risk,” a designation typically reserved for Chinese firms.

Recent Developments

• In an internal memo to Anthropic staff, Amodei said the Department offered to accept the company’s terms if it deleted a specific phrase about “analysis of bulk acquired data.” He described that line as the “single line in the contract that exactly matched” the scenario the company was most worried about.
• Anthropic refused to comply with the Pentagon’s demand, leading to the threat of contract termination.
• The memo also claimed that OpenAI’s messaging about the dispute was “just straight‑up lies,” and suggested that Anthropic’s strained relationship with the government stemmed in part from Amodei’s refusal to give “dictator‑style praise to Trump,” unlike OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

OpenAI’s Parallel Actions

• Shortly after the Anthropic dispute became public, OpenAI announced its own agreement with the Defense Department.
• Sam Altman tweeted that he had urged the government not to designate Anthropic as a supply‑chain risk and said he was unaware of the contract details.
• OpenAI amended its deal to explicitly prohibit the use of its AI for mass surveillance of Americans.
• According to CNBC, Altman told staff that the company does not make operational military decisions, emphasizing that “you don’t get to weigh in” on specific actions such as the Iran strike or a hypothetical Venezuela invasion.

Market Impact

• Following the announcement of OpenAI’s Defense Department contract, Anthropic’s Claude chatbot surged to the top of Apple’s “Top Free Apps” leaderboard, overtaking ChatGPT.

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*This article originally appeared on Engadget: *