According to the report, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is calling Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the Pentagon on Tuesday morning to discuss the military use of Cloud. axios.
The meeting comes as the Pentagon “threatened to declare” Anthropicsupply chain risk” – a label typically reserved for foreign adversaries – after the AI firm refused to allow the Defense Department to use its technology for mass surveillance of Americans and the development of weapons that fire without human involvement.
Anthropic signed a $200 million contract with the DOD last summer, and the cloud Allegedly Used during the January 3 special operations raid that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an episode that brought tensions between the two sides out into the open.
A source told Axios that Hegseth is giving Amodei an ultimatum: Play ball or run away. It’s not clear whether he’s bluffing – replacing Anthropic would be a significant undertaking. But the stakes are real: A supply chain risk designation would void Anthropic’s contract and force other Pentagon partners to abandon the cloud altogether.
