One to zero for the Pentagon in the legal battle against Anthropic.
Yesterday, the Washington Appeals Court rejected the request of the artificial intelligence startup developer of the Claude model to suspend the supply chain risk label applied by the Pentagon.
Claude – Anthropic’s artificial intelligence tool at the heart of the feud between the company and the Pentagon – has also been central to the U.S. campaign in Venezuela and Iran, demonstrating that it has become deeply embedded in the U.S. Defense Department’s commitment to integrating artificial intelligence into military operations.
As Reuters recalls, the lawsuit is one of two filed by Anthropic against the unprecedented move by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which came after Anthropic refused to authorize the use of the Claude AI-based chatbot for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, due to safety and ethical concerns.
The artificial intelligence startup has indeed requested the suspension of the measure at the Washington Appeals Court and has also sued the Department of War (formerly Department of Defense) in a federal court in Northern California.
On one side is Anthropic, which argues that the blacklisting is retaliation for its positions on AI safety. This label, which prevents the company from obtaining federal contracts, is usually reserved for organizations from hostile foreign countries, notes Afp. On the other side is the Department of Defense, which officially designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk in early March, stating that the company threatened national security.
All the details.
WHAT A WASHINGTON COURT DECIDED
On Wednesday, a federal Appeals Court in Washington D.C. refused to block, for now, the Pentagon’s blacklisting of Anthropic for national security reasons.
The appeals panel stated in its ruling that compelling the Department of War to continue using Anthropic’s AI, directly or through contractors, “seems to us a substantial judicial interference in military operations.”
However, the Appeals Court acknowledged that Anthropic raised “substantial challenges” regarding the sanctions and ordered that the proceedings in the main case be expedited.
A FIRST SUCCESS FOR THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
This is a victory for the Trump administration, coming after another Appeals Court reached the opposite conclusion in a separate legal appeal filed by Anthropic, Reuters reports again.
THE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN THE AI STARTUP AND THE PENTAGON
Anthropic, developer of the popular virtual assistant Claude, argues that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated the company as a “national security supply chain risk” due to its refusal to remove certain usage restrictions from its products. This label prevents Anthropic from obtaining contracts with the Pentagon and could trigger a government-wide blacklisting.
Anthropic executives have stated that the designation could cost the company billions of dollars in lost revenue and reputational damage.
ANTHROPIC’S POSITION
“We are grateful that the court recognized the need to resolve these issues quickly and remain confident that the courts will ultimately agree that these supply chain designations were illegitimate,” an Anthropic spokesperson told Afp.
“While this case was necessary to protect Anthropic, our customers, and our partners, our goal remains to work productively with the government to ensure that all Americans can benefit from safe and reliable artificial intelligence,” concluded the spokesperson for the company led by Dario Amodei.
THE LAWSUIT IN CALIFORNIA
Top Pentagon official Hegseth has issued orders designating Anthropic under two different laws, and Anthropic is contesting them separately.
The California case concerns a more specific rule that excludes Anthropic from Pentagon contracts related to military information systems.
On March 26, a federal judge in California blocked one of the orders, stating that the Pentagon appeared to have illegally retaliated against Anthropic for its positions on AI safety.
District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the government cannot immediately apply Anthropic’s designation as a “national security supply chain risk.” According to the judge, the administration’s actions may have been intended to punish the company for its public stance on AI safety rather than to address genuine national security concerns.
In her ruling, she stated that the government’s designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk was “likely both unlawful and arbitrary and capricious.”
THE RACE OF THE COMPANY BEHIND CLAUDE AI
Meanwhile, the legal dispute with the U.S. government does not seem to slow Anthropic’s growth.
Earlier this week, the company announced a new deal with microchip manufacturer Broadcom based on Anthropic’s commitment to invest $50 billion to strengthen U.S. computing infrastructure.
“This innovative partnership with Google and Broadcom represents the continuation of our rigorous approach to infrastructure scalability: we are building the capacity needed to handle the exponential growth we have seen in our customer base, while enabling Claude to define the frontier of AI development,” said Krishna Rao, Anthropic’s Chief Financial Officer, in a blog post. Most of the new infrastructure will be located in the United States, Anthropic stated.
Moreover, demand for its AI model Claude increased in 2026, with over 1,000 enterprise customers spending more than $1 million annually. This figure has more than doubled since February. As demonstrated by Anthropic’s annual revenue growth, which surpassed $30 billion, compared to about $9 billion at the end of last year, surpassing rival OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT.
