Anthropic sued the Defense Department and other federal agencies Monday after the Pentagon labeled it a threat to national security and President Donald Trump moved to sever the government's ties with the leading AI company.
Filing two lawsuits, one in U.S. District Court for Northern California and the other in U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., Anthropic alleged that the federal government’s moves to cut it off go beyond a normal contract dispute and instead are an “unlawful campaign of retaliation” after months of heated negotiations about how the military should be able to use Anthropic's AI systems.
The company said that its “reputation and core First Amendment freedoms are under attack” and that it will seek to prevent the Trump administration from implementing the bans.
The Pentagon announced last week that Anthropic would be labeled a “supply-chain risk to national security” and that its products would be banned from use for defense purposes, while Trump said he would also ban using Anthropic’s products across other federal agencies, including the Treasury and State departments.
Anthropic said the supply-chain risk designation and messaging from the White House were already “jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars,” illegally ignoring required procedures and overstepping presidential authority.
“Seeking judicial review does not change our longstanding commitment to harnessing AI to protect our national security,” Anthropic said in a statement, “but this is a necessary step to protect our business, our customers, and our partners. We will continue to pursue every path toward resolution, including dialogue with the government.”
In a statement, White House spokesperson Liz Huston said: "The President and Secretary of War are ensuring America’s courageous warfighters have the appropriate tools they need to be successful and will guarantee that they are never held hostage by the ideological whims of any Big Tech leaders. Under the Trump Administration, our military will obey the United States Constitution — not any woke AI company’s terms of service."
In response to a request for comment, the Pentagon said it does not comment on litigation as a matter of policy.
Anthropic filed lawsuits in two separate jurisdictions because of the Pentagon's use of multiple legal authorities to invoke the supply-chain risk designation. It filing in the Northern District of California offers a more detailed account of its allegations against the Trump administration.
The suits come after increasingly tense negotiations between the company and the Pentagon over the military's use of Anthropic’s advanced AI systems. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had wanted stronger guarantees from the Pentagon that its systems would not be used directly in deadly autonomous weapons or for mass domestic surveillance, while the Pentagon sought to use the systems for “all lawful use.”
In addition to the Defense Department, Anthropic is suing several other federal agencies, including the Treasury, State and Commerce departments, and their top officials. Among others, Anthropic listed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as defendants.
The Pentagon is reported to have used Anthropic’s flagship AI system, Claude, on classified networks for support in intelligence assessments, targeting recommendations and battle simulations as part of its partnership with the data analytics company Palantir. Claude has also been used across federal agencies to assist with data analysis and other administrative functions, much like consumer-facing chatbots.
Amodei has said the supply-chain risk label, historically reserved for foreign adversaries and associated companies that cannot be trusted in critical industries, has never before been publicly applied to an American company.
When the two parties could not come to an agreement by a Pentagon-set deadline Friday, Trump announced on Truth Social that all federal agencies must “IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.”
Shortly afterward, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on X that he would direct the Pentagon to label Anthropic as a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.” Hegseth made good on the threat Wednesday, officially informing Anthropic that it was banned from doing business with the Pentagon and its contractors for defense purposes.
