Anthropic sues US government for calling it a risk

Artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic has filed a first of its kind lawsuit against the US government over claims that it is a "supply chain risk".

The AI firm's chief executive Dario Amodei and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth have been publicly rowing due to the company's refusal to allow the military unfettered use of its AI tools.

The Pentagon retaliated by making Anthropic the first US company to be labelled a "supply chain risk", but Anthropic said in its lawsuit on Monday against a list of US government agencies that this was unlawful and unprecedented.

A spokesman for US Department of Defense declined to comment citing a policy on active litigation.

"These actions are unprecedented and unlawful," Anthropic said of its risk designation.

"The Constitution does not allow the government to wield its enormous power to punish a company for its protected speech. No federal statute authorizes the actions taken here."

Anthropic's lawsuit is against the President Donald Trump's executive office; several government leaders, including Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick; and 16 government agencies, including the Department of War, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.

The Department of War is a secondary name given by Trump for the Department of Defense.

Liz Huston, a spokeswoman for the White House, told the BBC that Anthropic is "a radical left, woke company" attempting to control military activity.

"Under the Trump Administration, our military will obey the United States Constitution – not any woke AI company's terms of service," Huston said.

Anthropic argued against this in its legal complaint filed Monday morning in California federal court.

The company said that Hegseth demanded it remove any usage restrictions from its defence contract, despite limitations on "lethal autonomous warfare" and "surveillance of Americans en masse" always having been part of its government contracts.

Anthropic has been used by the US government and military since 2024 and was the first advanced AI company to have its tools deployed in government agencies doing classified work.

Anthropic said that it did work with Hegseth on revising contract language in order to meet military use needs. It said it was nearing a successful negotiation to continue working with the department that would include limitations regarding surveillance and weaponry.

However, it said that Department of Defense "met Anthropic's attempts at compromise with public castigation".

Trump said the company was run by "left wing nut jobs" and directed all government agencies to stop using Anthropic tools.

Hegseth followed up on Trump's announcement by labeling Anthropic a "supply chain risk", meaning tools like Claude were suddenly considered not secure enough for government use. He also prohibited any company doing work with the government from using Anthropic tools.

Claude is one of the most popular AI tools in the world, with Claude Code being an almost ubiquitous part of work done by some of the biggest technology firms in the US, including Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.

Anthropic claims that it has been "irreparably" harmed as a result of Trump and Hegseth's comments.

"Current and future contracts with private parties are also in doubt, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in the near-term", the company said. "On top of those immediate economic harms, Anthropic's reputation and core First Amendment freedoms are under attack."

Anthropic also noted the "chilling effect" on free speech that the retaliation by the Trump Administration is having on other entities.

The company is not seeking monetary damages, but it is asking the court to immediately declare that Trump's directive "exceeds the president's authority" and is in violation of the Constitution, and immediately reject its having been labelled as supply chain risk.