Anthropic, the American AI startup behind the Claude models, has been officially designated a supply-chain risk by the Trump administration’s Department of Defense, a move typically reserved for foreign adversaries. This designation came after Anthropic reportedly refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its technology for applications the company deemed unsafe, specifically citing mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. The Department of Defense, formerly known as the Department of War, made this decision on Thursday, escalating its feud with the AI firm.

The implications of this supply-chain risk designation are significant. It means the Pentagon will no longer be able to utilize Anthropic’s products once it transitions Claude off its systems. Furthermore, any company or agency collaborating with the Pentagon is now required to certify that they do not use Anthropic’s models. Anthropic has publicly vowed to challenge this designation in court.

Despite this federal hurdle, major tech companies that partner with Anthropic have moved to reassure their customers. Microsoft, a significant provider of products like Office and and its cloud services to federal agencies, including the Defense Department, confirmed to TechCrunch that Anthropic’s models would remain available. A Microsoft spokesperson stated that their legal teams concluded Anthropic products, including Claude, can continue to be offered to customers—excluding the Department of War—through platforms such as M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry. Microsoft also affirmed its ability to continue collaborating with Anthropic on non-defense related projects.

Google, another prominent vendor of cloud computing, AI, and productivity tools to federal agencies, echoed Microsoft's sentiments. A Google spokesperson confirmed that the determination does not prevent them from working with Anthropic on non-defense projects and that Claude products remain available through their platforms, like Google Cloud. CNBC also reported similar assurances from AWS, indicating that its customers and partners can continue to use Claude for their non-defense associated workloads.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei reinforced these clarifications, stating that the supply-chain risk designation "plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts." Amodei further emphasized that even for Department of War contractors, the designation does not limit uses of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if those are unrelated to their specific Department of War contracts. In the midst of this dispute, Claude's consumer growth has reportedly continued its surge after Anthropic maintained its stance against the department’s demands.