U.S. Army Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a visit to Sierra Space, Monday, February 23, 2026, in Louisville, Colorado.
Aaron Hontiveros | Denver Post | Getty Images
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic he needs to give the military broad access to its artificial intelligence models by Friday night, CNBC confirmed Tuesday.
If Anthropic did not comply, Mr. Hegseth threatened to classify the company as a “supply chain risk” or invoke the Defense Production Act, according to a source familiar with the discussions. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private.
Negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon have stalled as the company seeks assurances that its models will not be used for autonomous weapons or mass surveillance of Americans. Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry requires the company to consent to “all lawful use cases” without restriction.
“Supply chain risk” is a designation typically reserved for foreign adversaries, but DoD vendors and contractors will have to prove they are not using Anthropic’s model. The Defense Production Act allows the president to use emergency powers to control domestic industry in the interest of national security.
Mr. Hegseth set the deadline in a meeting with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Tuesday morning, the people said.
An Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC in a statement: “We have continued to discuss usage policies in good faith so that Anthropic can continue to support the government’s national security mission consistent with what our model can do reliably and responsibly.”
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI researchers and executives and is best known for developing a family of AI models called Claude. The company signed a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense last year.
Until this week, Anthropic was the only AI company given permission to deploy models on sensitive government networks. Elon Musk’s xAI is now second in size, and the company recently agreed to allow the model to be deployed in classified environments, according to a senior Pentagon official.
Anthropic’s relationship with the White House has been rocky since President Donald Trump returned to power, and officials have not been afraid to criticize the company publicly. David Sachs, the venture capitalist who serves as the administration’s AI and cryptocurrency czar, accused Anthropic of supporting “woke AI” because of its stance on regulation.
Losing the Pentagon contract would be a blow to Anthropic, but the company has a number of other large enterprise customers. Anthropic announced earlier this month that it has more than 500 customers who spend more than $1 million on an annual basis.
The company also just received an infusion of new capital this month, completing a $30 billion funding round at a valuation of $380 billion.
WATCH: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to roll back AI safeguards
