President Donald Trump on Friday ordered all federal agencies to immediately stop using artificial intelligence technology developed by Anthropic, escalating a weeks-long dispute between the Pentagon and the San Francisco-based company over the military’s use of AI.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said agencies must cease use of the company’s products at once, while granting the Department of Defense and others a six-month period to phase out technology already embedded in military platforms.
The directive followed mounting tensions tied to Anthropic’s $200 million contract with the Pentagon, which includes classified work.
The Defense Department had set a 5:01 p.m. ET deadline on Friday for Anthropic to permit unrestricted military use of its AI models for all lawful purposes.
That deadline passed without agreement.
Anthropic sought assurances that its AI system, Claude, would not be used for fully autonomous weapons or mass domestic surveillance of Americans.
Chief Executive Dario Amodei said Thursday that the company “cannot in good conscience” accept the Pentagon’s demands without those safeguards.
Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth subsequently said he would designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk to national security, adding that its relationship with the federal government had been permanently altered.
Trump wrote that he was directing every federal agency to “IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology,” adding, “We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!”
He also warned of potential civil and criminal consequences if the company failed to cooperate during the phaseout period.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, criticized the move, raising concerns about whether national security decisions were being driven by political considerations.
The dispute reverberated across Silicon Valley, where employees at rival firms publicly supported Anthropic’s position.
OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman said his company shared similar red lines on mass surveillance and autonomous lethal weapons, underscoring broader industry tensions over the military’s expanding use of artificial intelligence.