Axios reports that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday morning to discuss military use of Claude.
The meeting comes as the Pentagon threatens to declare Anthropic a “supply chain risk” (a label typically given to foreign adversaries) after the AI company refused to allow the Pentagon to use its technology for mass surveillance of Americans or to develop weapons that could be fired without human involvement.
Anthropic signed a $200 million deal with the Pentagon last summer, and the Claude was reportedly used in the Jan. 3 special operations raid that led to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, an episode that brought tensions between the two countries into the spotlight.
A source told Axios that Hegseth is giving Amodei an ultimatum. It’s unclear whether he’s bluffing or not, but replacing Anthropic will be an important task. But the risks are real. The supply chain risk designation would invalidate Anthropic’s contract and force other Defense Department partners to fire Claude outright.
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