Anthropic filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the Pentagon’s decision to label the company as a “supply chain risk” is “unprecedented and unlawful.”
“The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech,” the lawsuit, filed in California, states. “No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here. Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation.”
According to Anthropic, the case’s consequences are “enormous.”
“The federal government retaliated against a leading frontier AI developer for adhering to its protected viewpoint on a subject of great public significance—AI safety and the limitations of its own AI models in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States,” the filing adds. “Defendants are seeking to destroy the economic value created by one of the world’s fastest-growing private companies, which is a leader in responsibly developing an emergent technology of vital significance to our Nation.”
Anthropic also filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., which demands a review of the Pentagon’s conclusion that the company presents a supply chain risk.
In an internal memo to employees, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei condemned OpenAI’s public statements regarding its recent contract with the Pentagon, reportedly describing them as “straight up lies.” The dispute centers on OpenAI’s recent agreement to provide artificial intelligence tools to the Department of War after negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon ended.
President Trump criticized Anthropic in a post on Truth Social, declaring last month, “THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL NEVER ALLOW A RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY TO DICTATE HOW OUR GREAT MILITARY FIGHTS AND WINS WARS! That decision belongs to YOUR COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, and the tremendous leaders I appoint to run our Military.”
