Pentagon Keeps Anthropic Supply-Chain Risk Tag Despite Lutnick Trust Pledge
The Commerce Secretary's trust statement and the Pentagon's reaffirmation on consecutive days expose a public split in the administration over Anthropic, with the Defense Department signaling it will not back down despite the court ruling.
Reporting from 1 source: GIGAZINE.
The Pentagon publicly reaffirmed that Anthropic remains a supply chain risk to the defense industrial base, one day after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the administration trusts the company. Deputy Defense Secretary Emil Michael posted the position on X. The statement follows a federal judge's ruling that the Pentagon's designation of Anthropic was unconstitutional, and undercuts Lutnick's reconciliation message.
The conflict began when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic an ultimatum: lift restrictions on its AI or lose national security contracts. Anthropic chose to break ties, the Pentagon designated the company a supply chain risk, and Anthropic sued. Federal judge Rita Lin ruled the designation unconstitutional.
Lutnick made his trust remarks at the G20 innovation ministers meeting, telling Axios co-founder Tom Brown that Anthropic "came back to the right side" and that he trusts CEO Dario Amodei. The next day, Deputy Defense Secretary Emil Michael posted on X that Anthropic remains a supply chain risk to the Defense Department and the defense industrial base.
Anthropic holds a second supply chain risk designation beyond the one in the lawsuit, so Michael's statement is technically accurate. The timing, layered onto Lutnick's remarks, signals the Defense Department will not bend.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.