Anthropic sues Trump admin over supply-chain risk label

Anthropic on Monday sued the Trump administration for declaring the artificial intelligence company a risk to the Defense Department’s supply chain, a step that further escalates a standoff over the ethical limits on increasingly powerful AI.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Anthropic accused the government of violating its First Amendment rights, exceeding the legal scope of the supply-chain risk statute and circumventing the process through which the president and cabinet secretaries are allowed to cancel government contracts.

“Anthropic turns to the judiciary as a last resort to vindicate its rights and halt the Executive’s unlawful campaign of retaliation,” the company’s lawyers wrote in the California filing. The lawsuit names several federal agencies and cabinet officials as defendants, including the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The company on a briefing call with reporters said it would also file a lawsuit against the Trump administration in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Spokespeople for the White House did not respond to a request for comment. A Pentagon spokesperson said the department does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The lawsuit is the latest development in a tumultuous dispute between the Pentagon and Anthropic over the company’s restrictions on the military’s use of its technology.

At a meeting with Hegseth last month, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said he would not allow Claude to be used to surveil American citizens or empower autonomous weapons. In response, Hegseth threatened to label the company a supply-chain risk — an unprecedented designation historically reserved for companies with ties to U.S. adversaries.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon told Anthropic it was formally designating the company a supply-chain risk. Days earlier, President Donald Trump sent a social media post ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic’s Claude AI model (which has reportedly been used by the Pentagon in ongoing combat operations in Iran).

Anthropic’s lawsuit highlights statements made by Trump and Hegseth in the course of their spat with the company to argue that the government seeks to suppress its constitutionally-protected speech.

“The Constitution confers on Anthropic the right to express its views — both publicly and to the government — about the limitations of its own AI services and important issues of AI safety,” the company’s lawyers wrote.

The company in the lawsuit also accuses the government of exceeding the legal scope of the supply-chain risk designation statute. Anthropic argues in court documents that the law is narrow and meant to address the risk that foreign adversaries could sabotage or subvert a national security system — a determination it says the government has not made about the company.

Anthropic also argues that Trump and Hegseth exceeded their authority by attempting to cancel the startup’s government contracts without following correct procurement procedures.

Finally, the company claims the government violated the Administrative Procedures Act and Anthropic’s Fifth Amendment right to due process, according to court documents.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.