U.S. President Donald Trump has directed all federal agencies to immediately cease work with artificial intelligence lab Anthropic, announcing a six-month phaseout period for the Department of Defense and other agencies using the company's products.
"I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!" Trump stated in a Truth Social post on Friday.
The directive comes amid a weeks-long feud between the Pentagon and the San Francisco-based startup over concerns about military applications of AI.
Spokespeople for Anthropic, which holds a $200 million contract with the Pentagon, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump's order stops short of earlier Pentagon threats, which included potentially invoking the Defense Production Act to compel Anthropic's compliance or designating the company as a supply-chain risk—a label previously applied to businesses linked to foreign adversaries.
The president's comments came just over an hour before a Pentagon deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences. This followed CEO Dario Amodei's statement that the company "cannot in good conscience accede" to the Defense Department's demands.
Calling Anthropic "left-wing nut jobs," Trump accused the company of attempting to strong-arm the Pentagon. While most agencies must stop using Anthropic's AI immediately, the Pentagon has been given six months to phase out technology already embedded in military platforms.
At the core of the defense contract dispute is a clash over AI's role in national security. Anthropic had sought assurances that its Claude AI would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. However, the company stated on Thursday that new contract language, "framed as compromise, was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will."
Trump threatened further action if Anthropic does not cooperate during the phaseout, warning he would use "the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow."
The setback occurs as Anthropic, a leader in AI, competes to sell its technology to businesses and government—particularly for national security—ahead of a widely anticipated initial public offering. The company has not finalized an IPO decision.
Anthropic claims to be the first frontier AI lab to deploy models on classified networks via Amazon.com and to build customized models for national security clients. Its Claude AI is used across intelligence and armed services.
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized Trump's move, stating: "The president’s directive to halt the use of a leading American AI company across the federal government, combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations."
This conflict is the latest in a saga dating to at least 2018, when Google employees protested the Pentagon's use of AI for drone footage analysis, straining Silicon Valley-Washington relations. A subsequent rapprochement saw companies like Amazon and Microsoft vying for defense contracts, with more CEOs pledging cooperation with the Trump administration last year.
The dispute has stunned AI developers in Silicon Valley, with employees from rivals OpenAI and Google expressing support for Amodei's stance in open letters. An open letter from some OpenAI and Google employees noted: "The Pentagon is negotiating with Google and OpenAI to try to get them to agree to what Anthropic has refused... They’re trying to divide each company with fear that the other will give in."
In a surprise move, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sided with Anthropic on Friday, questioning the Pentagon's "threatening" actions in a CNBC interview and suggesting that OpenAI and much of the AI field share similar red lines. Amodei previously worked at OpenAI before he and others... [trimmed for token optimization]
Source: www.aljazeera.com