Catenaa, Monday, March 09, 2026- Anthropic is suing the Trump administration, asking federal courts to reverse the Pentagon’s decision designating the AI company a “supply chain risk”.
Anthropic filed two separate lawsuits Monday, one in California federal court and another in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., each challenging different aspects of the Pentagon’s actions against the company.
The Pentagon last week formally designated a San Francisco tech company a supply chain risk after an unusually public dispute over how its AI chatbot Claude could be used in warfare.
The lawsuits aim to undo the designation and block its enforcement.
Anthropic said in its lawsuit that the designation was unlawful and violated its free speech and due process rights. The filing in federal court in California asked a judge to undo the designation and block federal agencies from enforcing it.
“These actions are unprecedented and unlawful. The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” Anthropic said.
The designation poses a big threat to Anthropic’s business with the government. The outcome could shape how other AI companies negotiate restrictions on military use of their technology. However, the company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, clarified on Thursday that the designation had “a narrow scope” and that businesses could still use its tools on projects unrelated to the Pentagon.
President Donald Trump has also directed the government to stop working with Anthropic, whose financial backers include Alphabet’s Google and Amazon.com. Trump and Hegseth said there would be a six-month phase-out.
Reuters has reported that Anthropic’s investors were racing to contain the damage caused by the fallout with the Pentagon.
Anthropic said even the best AI models were not reliable enough for fully autonomous weapons and that using them for that purpose would be dangerous. The company also drew a red line on domestic surveillance of Americans, calling that a violation of fundamental rights.
