After their dramatic falling out, it doesn’t look like Anthropic and Pentagon are getting back together.
Instead, the Pentagon is building tools to replace Anthropic’s AI, according to a Bloomberg chat with Cameron Stanley, the chief digital and AI officer at the Pentagon.
“The Department is actively pursuing multiple LLMs in the appropriate state settings,” he said. “Engineering work has begun on these LLMs and we expect to have them available for operational use very soon.”
Anthropic’s $200 million contract with the Department of Defense (DOD) has fallen apart in recent weeks after the two parties failed to reach an agreement on the extent to which the military could gain unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI.
While Anthropic tried to include a contractual clause prohibiting the Pentagon from using its AI for mass surveillance of Americans or developing weapons that can fire without human intervention, the Pentagon did not budge. Instead, OpenAI stepped in and made its own deal with the Pentagon. The Department of Defense — known under the Trump administration as the War Department — also signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s xAI to use Grok in classified systems.
It makes sense, then, why the Pentagon would work to phase Anthropic’s technology out of its workflows. While some reports suggested that there was a slight chance that Anthropic would reconcile with the Pentagon, this news suggests that the administration is preparing to move forward without them.
In fact, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, a designation usually reserved for foreign adversaries, preventing companies that work with the Pentagon from also working with Anthropic. Anthropic is challenging this characterization in court.
