Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks at the 2026 CES event in Las Vegas on January 6, 2026.
Bridget Bennett Bloomberg | Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Wednesday that the conflict between the Pentagon and Anthropic is “not the end of the world.”
His comments came after U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic until Friday to relax rules on how the Pentagon can use its AI tools or risk losing government contracts.
Sources told CNBC’s Ashley Caputo and Kate Rooney earlier this week that if Anthropic didn’t comply, Hegseth threatened to label the company a “supply chain risk” or invoke the Defense Production Act.
In an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick on Wednesday, Hwang said the Pentagon has the right to take advantage of the technology and use the products it procures in any way that serves its own interests.
Similarly, Anthropic has the right to decide how it wants to market its products and what they can be used for. “So I think they both have a reasonable perspective,” he said.
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 Pentagon requires the company to consent to “all lawful use cases” without restriction.
“I hope they figure it out, but if they don’t, it’s not the end of the world,” Huang said, noting that they are not the only AI company in the world, nor is the Justice Department their only customer.
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.
Anthropic and Nvidia entered into a strategic partnership in November. Claude’s maker adopted Nvidia’s technology architecture and received a $5 billion investment commitment from the chip designer.
—CNBC’s Ashley Caputo and Kate Rooney contributed to this article
