Tech Workers Call on Pentagon, Lawmakers to Remove Anthropic's Supply Chain Risk Designation

Hundreds of technology professionals have signed an open letter calling on the Department of Defense to rescind its "supply chain risk" designation for Anthropic. The letter further urges Congress to intervene and "assess whether employing such extraordinary authority against a domestic technology firm is justified."

Signatories to the letter include individuals from prominent technology and venture capital companies such as OpenAI, Slack, IBM, Cursor, Salesforce Ventures, and others. This action follows a disagreement between the DOD and Anthropic, which arose after the AI laboratory declined last week to grant the military unrestricted access to its AI systems.

During negotiations with the Pentagon, Anthropic established two non-negotiable principles: its technology must not be used for mass surveillance of American citizens, nor to operate autonomous weapons systems that make targeting and engagement decisions without meaningful human control. While the DOD stated it had no intention of pursuing these applications, it also asserted it should not be constrained by a vendor's policies.

Following Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei's refusal to comply with Hegseth's demands, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies on Friday to cease using Anthropic's technology after a six-month transition period. Hegseth vowed to follow through on his threat to classify Anthropic as a supply chain risk—a designation typically applied to foreign adversaries, which would prohibit the AI company from engaging with any agency or contractor working with the Pentagon.

In a social media post on Friday, Hegseth stated: "Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner conducting business with the United States military may engage in any commercial activity with Anthropic."

However, a social media post does not formally enact a supply chain risk designation. The government must complete a formal risk assessment and notify Congress before military partners are required to sever ties with Anthropic or its products. Anthropic responded in a blog post, calling the potential designation "legally unfounded" and vowing to "contest any supply chain risk classification in court."

Many within the technology sector view the administration's actions against Anthropic as severe and overt retaliation.

"When two parties cannot reach an agreement, the standard course is to disengage and seek alternatives," the open letter states. "This situation establishes a dangerous precedent. Penalizing an American company for refusing to accept contract modifications sends a clear message to every technology firm in the nation: acquiesce to the government's terms or face reprisal."

Beyond concerns over the government's punitive stance toward Anthropic, many industry experts remain worried about potential governmental overreach and the misuse of AI for harmful purposes.

Boaz Barak, a researcher at OpenAI, noted in a social media post on Monday that preventing governments from using AI for mass surveillance is also his "personal boundary" and "should be a boundary for all of us."

Shortly after President Trump's public criticism of Anthropic, OpenAI announced it had secured its own agreement to deploy its models within the DOD's classified environments. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman affirmed last week that his company shares the same core principles as Anthropic.

"If any positive outcome can emerge from last week's events, it would be for the AI industry to start treating the use of AI for government abuse and surveillance of populations as a catastrophic risk in its own right," Barak wrote. "We have established robust evaluations, mitigations, and processes for risks like bioweapons and cybersecurity. Let us apply similarly rigorous standards here."