President Trump on Friday directed federal agencies to stop using technology from San Francisco artificial intelligence company Anthropic, escalating a high-profile clash between AI startups and the Pentagon over safety.
President Trump described the company as “radical leftist” and “woke” in a Friday post on the social media site Truth Social.
“We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and we’ll never do business with them again!” Trump said.
The president’s harsh words signal a major escalation in an ongoing battle between parts of the Trump administration and several technology companies over the use of artificial intelligence in defense technology.
Anthropic has been sparring with the Pentagon, which on Friday threatened to terminate a $200 million contract with the company unless it loosens restrictions on its AI models and allows them to be used for more military purposes. Anthropic wanted further assurances that its technology would not be used to monitor American citizens or autonomous weapons.
The dispute could disrupt Anthropic’s business with the government. The Trump administration announced that the company had been added to a comprehensive national security blacklist, ordering federal agencies to immediately stop using the company’s products and barring government contractors from maintaining a relationship with the company.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei this week, criticized tech companies in the wake of President Trump’s Truth social posts.
He wrote on social media site
Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.
In July, Anthropic announced a two-year contract with the Department of Defense to “prototype frontier AI capabilities to advance U.S. national security.”
The company has an AI chatbot called Claude, but it has also built custom AI systems for U.S. national security customers.
Amodei indicated Thursday that the company will not bow to the Pentagon’s demands to ease safety restrictions on its AI models.
The government has stressed during negotiations that it wants to use Anthropic’s technology only for lawful purposes, and the safeguards Anthropic is seeking are already covered by law.
Still, Mr. Amodei was concerned about Washington’s involvement.
“We have never objected to specific military operations, nor have we sought to limit the use of technology on an ad hoc basis,” he said in a blog post. “However, we believe that in limited cases, AI could undermine rather than protect democratic values.”
Tech workers support Anthropic’s stance.
Unions and worker groups representing 700,000 employees at Amazon, Google and Microsoft announced in a joint statement this week that they will also urge employers to deny these demands if they have additional contracts with the Department of Defense.
“Our employers are already complicit in providing their technology to facilitate mass atrocities and war crimes. Bowing to the Department of Defense’s intimidation will only further engage our workers in violence and oppression,” the statement said.
Anthropic’s conflict with the US government could benefit competitors such as Elon Musk’s xAI and OpenAI.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT and is one of Anthropic’s biggest competitors, said in an interview with CNBC that he trusts Anthropic.
“I think they really care about safety, and I’m glad they’re supporting our warfighters,” he said. “I don’t know what will happen next.”
Anthropic has sought to differentiate itself from its competitors by touting its AI safety concerns.
The company is valued at about $380 billion and is legally required to balance making money with advancing its public interest, which is “the responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity.”
Developers, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations use Anthropic’s tools. Its chatbots can generate code, write text, and perform other tasks. Anthropic also offers an AI assistant for consumers and makes money from paid subscriptions as well as contracts. Unlike OpenAI, which is testing ads on ChatGPT, Anthropic has committed to not displaying ads on its chatbot Claude.
The company has approximately 2,000 employees and annual revenues of approximately $14 billion.
