Anthropic’s Pentagon battle shifts from courtroom to chain of command

The Pentagon will continue its existing ban on Anthropic, regardless of other cabinet members stating that the bigger battle has ended. For now, the remaining designation by the Department of Defense will either have to be reversed by a court ruling or by the Pentagon itself. On Thursday, high-ranking officials from the Pentagon made it clear that the latter scenario is highly unlikely.

That keeps the courts at the center of the dispute. And the outcome matters beyond Anthropic because it could help define how far the US government can go in penalizing an AI contractor that refuses to remove its own limits on military uses of its technology.

Michael’s post cut against Lutnick’s thaw

Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, wrote on X that “Anthropic is still a designated Supply Chain Risk at @DeptofWar and for the Defense Industrial Base.” He closed with “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

The remark followed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s positive comments about Anthropic. Lutnick stated to Mike Allen of Axios, “We trust Anthropic,” explaining that the company had “done what we asked” and was “back on the right side.”

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