Federal Judge Questions Pentagon Motives in Anthropic Supply Chain Risk Designation; First-Ever Use Against a US Company

A federal judge in San Francisco questioned the Pentagon's rationale for designating AI company Anthropic a supply chain risk—the first time a US company has received this label under a statute designed to protect military systems from foreign sabotage. The designation, which bars all federal agencies including IC elements from using Anthropic's Claude AI models, followed the company's refusal to allow unrestricted government use of its technology for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons. The judge called the government's actions troubling and not tailored to national security concerns. DoD argued that Anthropic's red lines make it an unacceptable risk to national security. Senator Elizabeth Warren separately characterized the designation as retaliation.