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Anthropic scores court victory against Pentagon's 'illegal and baseless' actions
Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. In a legal victory for artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, a federal judge has ruled against the Pentagon over its decision earlier this year to designate the company a supply chain risk. In a written order issued Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin determined that the Department of Defense acted unlawfully by penalizing the tech firm for voicing criticism of defense policy on AI integration. The government is expected to challenge the decision. The conflict escalated in February after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited national security concerns to brand Anthropic a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to acquiesce amid concerns the company's technology could be applied to mass surveillance or autonomous military drones. In her ruling, Lin stated that federal actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson welcomed the outcome in a statement: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately issue a response to requests for comment. Writing in the 59-page decision, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, asserted that constitutional provisions and federal statutes do not allow authorities to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic launched its lawsuit against the Pentagon in March in response to the supply chain classification, challenging what it described as an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" caused by its refusal to grant unrestricted military access to its tools. The court fight highlighted a rare public dispute regarding the role of AI in defense and surveillance operations. Notably, primary industry competitor OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, reached its own agreement to collaborate with defense officials hours after the government penalized Anthropic. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently preparing for anticipated initial public offerings. Anthropic is also pursuing a secondary, narrower lawsuit currently pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., targeting a separate regulatory mechanism invoked by the Pentagon to designate the firm a risk. Earlier in the case, Lin granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Pentagon from applying the supply chain designation and halting the enforcement of a social media directive from Trump instructing federal agencies to cease using Anthropic products and its Claude chatbot. During a hearing on July 30, Lin described the government's stance as "really troubling" and remarked that it appeared "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She added that the legal standing had "gotten worse for the government" over time. Department of Justice attorneys argued at that hearing that the complex architecture of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that defense officials cannot evaluate it through standard methods used for physical hardware. Anthropic attorney Michael Mongan asserted during the proceeding that official actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
Anthropic scores court victory against Pentagon's 'illegal and baseless' actions
Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. In a legal victory for artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, a federal judge has ruled against the Pentagon over its decision earlier this year to designate the company a supply chain risk. In a written order issued Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin determined that the Department of Defense acted unlawfully by penalizing the tech firm for voicing criticism of defense policy on AI integration. The government is expected to challenge the decision. The conflict escalated in February after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited national security concerns to brand Anthropic a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to acquiesce amid concerns the company's technology could be applied to mass surveillance or autonomous military drones. In her ruling, Lin stated that federal actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson welcomed the outcome in a statement: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately issue a response to requests for comment. Writing in the 59-page decision, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, asserted that constitutional provisions and federal statutes do not allow authorities to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic launched its lawsuit against the Pentagon in March in response to the supply chain classification, challenging what it described as an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" caused by its refusal to grant unrestricted military access to its tools. The court fight highlighted a rare public dispute regarding the role of AI in defense and surveillance operations. Notably, primary industry competitor OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, reached its own agreement to collaborate with defense officials hours after the government penalized Anthropic. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently preparing for anticipated initial public offerings. Anthropic is also pursuing a secondary, narrower lawsuit currently pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., targeting a separate regulatory mechanism invoked by the Pentagon to designate the firm a risk. Earlier in the case, Lin granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Pentagon from applying the supply chain designation and halting the enforcement of a social media directive from Trump instructing federal agencies to cease using Anthropic products and its Claude chatbot. During a hearing on July 30, Lin described the government's stance as "really troubling" and remarked that it appeared "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She added that the legal standing had "gotten worse for the government" over time. Department of Justice attorneys argued at that hearing that the complex architecture of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that defense officials cannot evaluate it through standard methods used for physical hardware. Anthropic attorney Michael Mongan asserted during the proceeding that official actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
Anthropic scores court victory against Pentagon's 'illegal and baseless' actions
In a legal victory for artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, a federal judge has ruled against the Pentagon over its decision earlier this year to designate the company a supply chain risk. In a written order issued Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin determined that the Department of Defense acted unlawfully by penalizing the tech firm for voicing criticism of defense policy on AI integration. The government is expected to challenge the decision. The conflict escalated in February after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited national security concerns to brand Anthropic a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to acquiesce amid concerns the company's technology could be applied to mass surveillance or autonomous military drones. In her ruling, Lin stated that federal actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson welcomed the outcome in a statement: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately issue a response to requests for comment. Writing in the 59-page decision, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, asserted that constitutional provisions and federal statutes do not allow authorities to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic launched its lawsuit against the Pentagon in March in response to the supply chain classification, challenging what it described as an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" caused by its refusal to grant unrestricted military access to its tools. The court fight highlighted a rare public dispute regarding the role of AI in defense and surveillance operations. Notably, primary industry competitor OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, reached its own agreement to collaborate with defense officials hours after the government penalized Anthropic. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently preparing for anticipated initial public offerings. Anthropic is also pursuing a secondary, narrower lawsuit currently pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., targeting a separate regulatory mechanism invoked by the Pentagon to designate the firm a risk. Earlier in the case, Lin granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Pentagon from applying the supply chain designation and halting the enforcement of a social media directive from Trump instructing federal agencies to cease using Anthropic products and its Claude chatbot. During a hearing on July 30, Lin described the government's stance as "really troubling" and remarked that it appeared "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She added that the legal standing had "gotten worse for the government" over time. Department of Justice attorneys argued at that hearing that the complex architecture of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that defense officials cannot evaluate it through standard methods used for physical hardware. Anthropic attorney Michael Mongan asserted during the proceeding that official actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
US judge blocks Pentagon's blacklisting of AI firm Anthropic
A US federal judge has blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of artificial intelligence company Anthropic, ruling that the government acted illegally by punishing the firm for its public safety criticisms. In a scathing 59-page decision issued on Thursday, District Judge Rita Lin overturned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's designation of Anthropic as a national security "supply-chain risk." The court order permanently bars federal agencies from enforcing the sanctions, which had blocked the creator of the Claude AI models from military contracts and threatened billions of dollars in lost business. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Judge Lin wrote. The high-stakes legal battle erupted after Anthropic refused to allow its technology to be used for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons, arguing that current AI models remain too unreliable for battlefield deployment. Following the company's stance, the administration labelled the firm a supply-chain risk - marking the first time an American company was targeted under an obscure procurement statute traditionally reserved for foreign sabotage threats. Judge Lin concluded that the Pentagon targeted Anthropic in retaliation for its protected free speech regarding AI safety, violating both First Amendment rights and due process. While Justice Department lawyers argued that the company's restrictions created operational uncertainties for the military, the court dismissed the defence as baseless. Anthropic welcomed the ruling, emphasising its desire to work productively with the government on national security. The Pentagon has not yet issued an immediate comment, though an appeal is widely expected. Legal analysts note that the outcome delivers a major victory for tech firms navigating government contracts and highlights growing friction between private AI developers and military oversight.
Pentagon's action against Anthropic was 'illegal and baseless,' judge rules
In a legal victory for artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, a federal judge has ruled against the Pentagon over its decision earlier this year to designate the company a supply chain risk. In a written order issued Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin determined that the Department of Defense acted unlawfully by penalizing the tech firm for voicing criticism of defense policy on AI integration. The government is expected to challenge the decision. The conflict escalated in February after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited national security concerns to brand Anthropic a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to acquiesce amid concerns the company's technology could be applied to mass surveillance or autonomous military drones. In her ruling, Lin stated that federal actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson welcomed the outcome in a statement: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately issue a response to requests for comment. Writing in the 59-page decision, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, asserted that constitutional provisions and federal statutes do not allow authorities to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic launched its lawsuit against the Pentagon in March in response to the supply chain classification, challenging what it described as an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" caused by its refusal to grant unrestricted military access to its tools. The court fight highlighted a rare public dispute regarding the role of AI in defense and surveillance operations. Notably, primary industry competitor OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, reached its own agreement to collaborate with defense officials hours after the government penalized Anthropic. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently preparing for anticipated initial public offerings. Anthropic is also pursuing a secondary, narrower lawsuit currently pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., targeting a separate regulatory mechanism invoked by the Pentagon to designate the firm a risk. Earlier in the case, Lin granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Pentagon from applying the supply chain designation and halting the enforcement of a social media directive from Trump instructing federal agencies to cease using Anthropic products and its Claude chatbot. During a hearing on July 30, Lin described the government's stance as "really troubling" and remarked that it appeared "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She added that the legal standing had "gotten worse for the government" over time. Department of Justice attorneys argued at that hearing that the complex architecture of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that defense officials cannot evaluate it through standard methods used for physical hardware. Anthropic attorney Michael Mongan asserted during the proceeding that official actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
Anthropic Launches Claude Team Plan for Global Scientists
* Anthropic launched the Claude Team Plan for Scientists, lowering software barriers for academic researchers worldwide. * Features free Standard seats (normally $20/month) and 80% discounted Premium seats at $15/month (normally $100/month) with 5x usage limits for 12 months. * Enrolled teams gain access to Claude Science, Claude Code, Claude Cowork, and native connectors to over 60 scientific databases. * Open to Principal Investigators (PIs) and laboratory leads at accredited universities or non profit research institutions. Anthropic launched the Claude Team Plan for Scientists, offering 10,000 seats, Claude Science access, and up to $50K compute grants for researchers. Eligibility Rules and Built in Tools The plan pairs regular enterprise collaboration features with specialized software which are built for scientific analysis and experimental design. Who Can Apply and Verification Steps The program is open only to accredited universities and non-profit research institutes. The application must be submitted by a Principal Investigator (PI) or equivalent laboratory head, who must provide their institutional affiliation, an official email address, and a brief summary of their current research focus. For-profit corporations, industrial R&D teams, and contract research organizations (CROs) are strictly excluded from the initiative. Once approved, within 5 to 7 business days the PI can invite between 1 and 25 team members to the workspace. Labs requiring larger seat allocations can contact Anthropic directly during onboarding. Claude Science and Core Workspace Features Every account includes full Claude Team features, such as Claude Code, Claude Cowork, single sign-on (SSO), and centralized administrative billing. Under Anthropic's data privacy commitments, research files and prompts are never used to train public AI models. The centerpiece of the plan is Claude Science, a desktop research application in beta for macOS and Linux. It functions as an interactive computational environment that connects to more than 60 scientific databases covering genomics, proteomics, and chemical retrosynthesis. Claude Science automates code execution records so results remain reproducible, manages the handover from local laptops to high performance computing (HPC) clusters, and uses specialized reviewer agents to double-check citations, formulas, and math proofs. Extra Compute Grants and Safety Controls Enrolled laboratories can request additional funding through Anthropic's broader AI for Science program, which offers up to $50,000 in free API and compute credits for research projects. Because frontier models can handle sensitive chemical and biological knowledge, Anthropic maintains strict safety guardrails against risks. The company is working with government agencies and regulatory authorities to create verified access for qualified life sciences professionals. To keep the subsidy active, teams will need to maintain regular activity, as inactive accounts may revert to standard pricing after 90 days.
Judge says Pentagon's measures against Anthropic were 'illegal and baseless'
By KAITLYN HUAMANI, AP Technology Writer A federal judge has ruled in favor of artificial intelligence company Anthropic in its legal battle against the Pentagon after the government labeled the company as a supply chain risk earlier this year. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a written order Thursday night that the Pentagon acted illegally by punishing the AI company for its criticism of the Department of Defense's views on AI use. The government is expected to fight the ruling. The dispute between the AI company and the government broke out in February when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Anthropic of endangering national security and designated the company a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company's products could be used for mass surveillance or autonomous armed drones. Lin wrote that the government's actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement that they welcome the judge's ruling: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the 59-page ruling, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote that neither the Constitution nor the federal statute the government invoked allows them to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic sued the Pentagon over the supply chain risk designation in March for what it called an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" over its refusal to allow unrestricted military use of its technology. The legal challenge intensified an unusually public dispute over how AI can be used in warfare and mass surveillance. Anthropic's primary tech industry rival, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, made its own deal to work with the Pentagon just hours after the government punished Anthropic for its stance. Anthropic and OpenAI are each ramping up for buzzy initial public offerings. Anthropic has also filed a separate and narrower case that is still pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. That case involves a different rule the Pentagon is using to try to declare Anthropic a supply chain risk. Earlier in the legal proceedings, Lin had temporarily blocked the Pentagon from labeling the company as a supply chain risk and blocked enforcement of Trump's social media directive ordering all federal agencies to stop using Anthropic and its chatbot Claude. In a hearing July 30, Lin had said that the government's position was "really troubling" to her and that it seemed "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She also said she believed the record had "gotten worse for the government" over time. In that same hearing, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the nature of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that the Defense Department cannot evaluate it in the same way it would a physical piece of hardware. Anthropic lawyer Michael Mongan said in that hearing that the government's actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and that they "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
Pentagon's action against Anthropic was 'illegal and baseless,' judge rules
In a legal victory for artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, a federal judge has ruled against the Pentagon over its decision earlier this year to designate the company a supply chain risk. In a written order issued Thursday night, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin determined that the Department of Defense acted unlawfully by penalizing the tech firm for voicing criticism of defense policy on AI integration. The government is expected to challenge the decision. The conflict escalated in February after President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited national security concerns to brand Anthropic a supply chain risk. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to acquiesce amid concerns the company's technology could be applied to mass surveillance or autonomous military drones. In her ruling, Lin stated that federal actions "were based on a desire to make a public example out of Anthropic for its 'arrogance' in criticizing the government, not based on any articulable basis to believe that Anthropic would actually sabotage its model." An Anthropic spokesperson welcomed the outcome in a statement: "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The White House did not immediately issue a response to requests for comment. Writing in the 59-page decision, Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, asserted that constitutional provisions and federal statutes do not allow authorities to "impose sweeping penalties based principally on Anthropic's critique of the Administration's views." Anthropic launched its lawsuit against the Pentagon in March in response to the supply chain classification, challenging what it described as an "unlawful campaign of retaliation" caused by its refusal to grant unrestricted military access to its tools. The court fight highlighted a rare public dispute regarding the role of AI in defense and surveillance operations. Notably, primary industry competitor OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, reached its own agreement to collaborate with defense officials hours after the government penalized Anthropic. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently preparing for anticipated initial public offerings. Anthropic is also pursuing a secondary, narrower lawsuit currently pending in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., targeting a separate regulatory mechanism invoked by the Pentagon to designate the firm a risk. Earlier in the case, Lin granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the Pentagon from applying the supply chain designation and halting the enforcement of a social media directive from Trump instructing federal agencies to cease using Anthropic products and its Claude chatbot. During a hearing on July 30, Lin described the government's stance as "really troubling" and remarked that it appeared "at odds to me with the First Amendment." She added that the legal standing had "gotten worse for the government" over time. Department of Justice attorneys argued at that hearing that the complex architecture of AI models is "so staggeringly enormous and opaque" that defense officials cannot evaluate it through standard methods used for physical hardware. Anthropic attorney Michael Mongan asserted during the proceeding that official actions "profoundly harm Anthropic" and "threaten more broadly to chill speech and debate on a very important issue."
Judge Rules Trump Admin Illegally Retaliated Against Anthropic Over AI Red Lines
* Judge Rita Lin granted Anthropic summary judgment on its First Amendment, due process and Administrative Procedure Act claims in a 59-page order. * The government conceded Anthropic has no backdoor access to deployed models and is no riskier than any other AI system. * Anthropic lost on one count, its claim that Trump's directive to federal agencies exceeded presidential power. A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration illegally punished Anthropic for publicly refusing to let the military use its Claude LLM for tasks including mass surveillance of Americans and lethal autonomous warfare. The dispute began when the Pentagon told Anthropic to strip all usage restrictions and accept a clause permitting "all lawful uses." Anthropic dropped most of them and held two red lines. On February 27, Trump ordered every federal agency to stop using the company's technology, calling it a "RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY" on Truth Social. Hegseth followed, accusing Anthropic in a tweet of "a master class in arrogance and betrayal" and barring any military contractor from doing business with it. What the record showed The government has since abandoned its central claim. Its risk assessment rested on Anthropic having backdoor access to deployed models, and it now concedes Anthropic has no such access and that Claude is no riskier than any other "black box" system. That left one factor: trust, forfeited by what a Pentagon memo called Anthropic's "increasingly hostile manner through the press." Lin found the timeline gave that away. Days before the blacklisting, Hegseth had floated invoking the Defense Production Act, which would have made Anthropic essential to national security. The day after the designation, an under secretary emailed the company to say a contract was "very close." The government is still discussing collaboration on Mythos, Anthropic's newest model, across sensitive contexts, Lin added. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," Lin wrote, finding the actions retaliatory under the First Amendment, imposed without the pre-deprivation process the Fifth Amendment requires, outside the supply chain statute, and arbitrary and capricious. Anthropic did not win everything. Lin rejected its argument that Trump's directive exceeded presidential authority, and entered judgment for agencies that took no action. She vacated the designation and Hegseth's boycott order, granted a permanent injunction, and denied the government's request for a seven-day administrative stay, noting it had operated under a preliminary injunction since March without identifying any harm.
Anthropic Opens Preview Of New Standard Allowing AI Agents To Control Lab Equipment
Hyderabad: Anthropic has opened a research preview of a new system called the Model Hardware Standard (MHS), designed to let Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents safely operate physical machines in laboratories and factories. The preview is being made available to a first group of scientific research labs and manufacturers, marking an early step towards making the technology more widely available. MHS allows AI agents to control several lab and manufacturing tools at the same time, including microscopes, liquid handling machines and robotic arms. It can support tasks ranging from everyday drug discovery experiments to calibrating lasers on quantum computers. The system was originally developed through a partnership between Anthropic and HHMI Janelia Research Campus. What does MHS solve? Traditionally, setting up a lab or factory equipment to work together normally takes weeks or even months, since most devices cannot communicate with one another without specially built connections. However, MHS is designed to cut this setup time down to hours or even minutes. By adding AI into the process, it allows researchers and engineers to run experiments and workflows automatically, around the clock. The AI agent can work through each step of an experiment, adjust settings as needed, and in some cases fix hardware problems without requiring a person to step in.
Anthropic's $7 Billion Chip Plan Takes a New Turn
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Anthropic seems bent on reducing its reliance on externally sourced AI processors, even if a big purchase doesn't materialize.Reuters reported that the developer of Claude had been in talks to acquire AI chip startup MatX for almost $7 billion, although the discussions then pivoted to a possible cooperation.MatX was formed by ex-Google tensor processing unit engineers and is building chips to train massive AI models. The business is currently raising further money at a valuation of around $4 billion. Anthropic's appeal is simple.The corporation might get more control over cost and performance by building custom silicon, as demand for Claude increases. Anthropic has already recruited veterans from Google and OpenAI and grown its internal silicon team.Meanwhile, the corporation is spending much on outside computers. Anthropic aims to spend $36 billion on Google AI chips and has signed a $45 billion cloud-computing deal with Nscale, highlighting the huge cost of securing enough infrastructure to train and run frontier models.Another route for Anthropic to develop out more of that tech on its own might be a MatX relationship. The acquisition may have hit a snag, but Anthropic's push into bespoke chips certainly hasn't.
Anthropic's $7 Billion Chip Plan Takes a New Turn
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Anthropic seems bent on reducing its reliance on externally sourced AI processors, even if a big purchase doesn't materialize.Reuters reported that the developer of Claude had been in talks to acquire AI chip startup MatX for almost $7 billion, although the discussions then pivoted to a possible cooperation.MatX was formed by ex-Google tensor processing unit engineers and is building chips to train massive AI models. The business is currently raising further money at a valuation of around $4 billion. Anthropic's appeal is simple.The corporation might get more control over cost and performance by building custom silicon, as demand for Claude increases. Anthropic has already recruited veterans from Google and OpenAI and grown its internal silicon team.Meanwhile, the corporation is spending much on outside computers. Anthropic aims to spend $36 billion on Google AI chips and has signed a $45 billion cloud-computing deal with Nscale, highlighting the huge cost of securing enough infrastructure to train and run frontier models.Another route for Anthropic to develop out more of that tech on its own might be a MatX relationship. The acquisition may have hit a snag, but Anthropic's push into bespoke chips certainly hasn't.
Judge Strikes Pentagon Risk Label Against Anthropic
A California federal judge said the Trump administration's designation of Anthropic was unlawful retaliation and violated constitutional protections.Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe! A federal judge in California has thrown out the Trump administration's designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk, handing the company its first court win in a fight that has put the Pentagon's AI procurement practices under a bright light. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ruled Thursday evening that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's move was "unlawful retaliation" and violated the First Amendment. She also said the action was "arbitrary and capricious" and denied Anthropic due process under the Fifth Amendment. The label, the backlash, and the legal break The dispute started after Anthropic drew hard lines around safety guardrails that would have allowed the Pentagon to use its models for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of American citizens. The Pentagon said it would use Anthropic models only for lawful purposes and argued the company was trying to control how the military used technology it had already bought. Hegseth and President Donald Trump later labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk and ordered federal agencies, including those outside the Defense Department, to stop working with the Claude maker. Lin said the government's "words and deeds" showed the action was driven by a desire to make Anthropic "a public example" for its criticism of the administration. She also pointed to the disconnect between the risk label and other government actions, including Hegseth's proposal to apply the Defense Production Act to Anthropic, which would have treated the company as essential to national security rather than a threat to it. Why the court said the designation did not hold up The judge also cited the Defense Department's continued pursuit of a contract with Anthropic and the government's collaboration with the company's new model, Mythos, for cybersecurity. In Lin's view, those facts cut against the idea that Anthropic posed a supply-chain threat. She wrote that Anthropic "undisputedly lacks" any backdoor access to its technology once it is handed over to the Defense Department. That mattered. The ruling said the broad restrictions imposed on the company were not supported by the record. Also Read: Entercom Station News Radio 1120 Kmox in St. Louis Returns as Chiefs Radio Network Affiliate "Though the Department of War is undisputedly free to select the AI vendor of its choice, the evidence demonstrates that the broad measures imposed on Anthropic were illegal and baseless," Lin wrote. "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she added. What Anthropic gets from the ruling Anthropic welcomed the decision. "We welcome the court's ruling that this supply chain risk designation was unlawful," a spokesperson said in a statement shared with TechCrunch. "We remain focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology." The company filed two complaints against the Defense Department in March, one in California and one in Washington, D.C. The D.C. case is still . The ruling does not end the broader fight over how federal agencies buy and use frontier AI systems. It does, however, strip away one of the government's most aggressive moves against a major model provider and puts the administration on the defensive over how far national security can be stretched when a vendor pushes back on military use cases.
Judge blocks Pentagon blacklist of Anthropic as supply chain risk
Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, during an interview on "The Circuit with Emily Chang" at Anthropic's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, April 30, 2026. Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images A federal judge in California on Thursday ruled that the Pentagon's effort to blacklist Anthropic earlier this year violated the First Amendment and deprived the artificial intelligence company of its constitutionally protected liberties. This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 9:41 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 6:41 PM.
US judge blocks Pentagon's Anthropic blacklisting
August 27(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blocked the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic, the latest turn in the Claude maker's high-stakes fight with the military over AI safety on the battlefield. Anthropic's lawsuit in California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated Anthropic a national security supply-chain risk, a label the government can apply to companies that expose military systems to potential infiltration or sabotage by adversaries. Hegseth's unprecedented move, which followed Anthropic's refusal to allow the military to use AI chatbot Claude for U.S. surveillance or autonomous weapons, blocked Anthropic from certain military contracts. Anthropic executives have said it could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business and reputational harm. Anthropic says that AI models are not reliable enough to be safely used in autonomous weapons and that it opposes domestic surveillance as a violation of rights, but the Pentagon says private companies should not be able to constrain military action. U.S. District Judge Rita Lin, an appointee of former Democratic President Joe Biden, made the ruling in a 59-page order where she found that the Pentagon's decision was "illegal and baseless." "The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics," she wrote. Anthropic's designation was the first time a U.S. company has been publicly designated a supply-chain risk under an obscure government-procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage. In its March 9 lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its right to free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution by retaliating against its views on AI safety. The company said it was not given a chance to dispute the designation, in violation of its Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit says the decision was unlawful, unsupported by facts and inconsistent with the military's past praise of Claude. The Justice Department countered that Anthropic's refusal to lift the restrictions could cause uncertainty in the Pentagon over how it could use Claude and risk disabling military systems during operations, according to a court filing. The government said the designation stemmed from Anthropic's refusal to accept contractual terms, not its views on AI safety. Anthropic has a second lawsuit pending in Washington, D.C., over a separate Pentagon supply-chain risk designation that could lead to its exclusion from civilian government contracts. (Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Matthew Lewis) Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect. This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 8:41 PM.
Judge Rules Trump Administration Violated Anthropic's First Amendment Rights
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge ruled late Thursday that the Trump administration violated Anthropic's First Amendment rights and barred it from blacklisting Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, granting relief to the artificial-intelligence lab that has been embroiled in a monthslong fight with the ...
Anthropic weighed US$7 billion MatX purchase in push to reduce Nvidia reliance: sources
[SAN FRANCISCO] Anthropic discussed buying artificial intelligence chip startup MatX for roughly US$7 billion, seeking to accelerate efforts to develop custom hardware for its fast-growing AI business, two people briefed on the matter told Reuters. The merger talks, which a third person said have evolved into a discussion about a partnership, underscore the AI lab's ambition to secure the resources and talent needed to build its own chips. The goal is to help Anthropic accelerate its in-house chip development. Reuters is reporting on the discussions for the first time but could not learn why the talks are no longer active. MatX, founded by former Google tensor processing unit (TPU) engineers, is now seeking to raise new capital at a valuation of about US$4 billion, one of the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss private matters. Anthropic declined to comment on deal talks with MatX. MatX did not respond to a request for comment. Chip plans on road to IPO As Anthropic scales its Claude family of AI models, the company is looking to produce hardware that can fulfill its voracious appetite for data crunching and reduce its reliance on chips produced by Nvidia. Anthropic, which is expected to list in 2026, has hired engineering and executive talent to accelerate the chip design process, which could take years. Anthropic's IPO, expected months after SpaceX went public with a US$1 trillion valuation, will chase a valuation of US$2 trillion, which hinges on a 2028 revenue figure of as much as US$200 billion, Reuters reported earlier in August. Anthropic said it is expanding an in-house silicon team to design custom chips that will allow Claude models to run faster and more efficiently. It also plans to keep a multi-chip approach by working with providers from Nvidia to Google. Designing chips is expensive and time-consuming. It can take a year or more to produce a viable piece of hardware, and design costs for a single generation run in the hundreds of millions of dollars. An acquisition of an AI chip startup such as MatX would give Anthropic in-house design expertise and could help lower costs over the longer term, the people said. MatX has been working on a chip that would be useful for building large AI models in a process called training. Anthropic plans to spend tens of billions of dollars to rent computing power from cloud providers and also plans to buy chips directly. It plans to buy US$36 billion worth of Google's AI chips, and signed a US$45 billion deal to rent AI cloud computing power from Nscale. It agreed to pay SpaceX US$1.25 billion per month through May 2029 for computing capacity across its data centre clusters. D with other AI chip startups The discussions with MatX also suggest Anthropic may be interested in producing a training chip, while other chip startups and rival OpenAI pursue processors better suited to generating responses from chatbots, a process known as inference. Anthropic could elect to produce an inference chip as well, the sources said. In recent weeks, Anthropic held meetings with a range of AI chip startups. It has not yet elected to make an acquisition. The meetings are an attempt by Anthropic's engineers and executives to understand the current range of chip design approaches. On Aug 22, Anthropic hired Google chip veteran Amir Salek as part of the company's push into hardware. In June, the AI lab hired former OpenAI chip engineer Clive Chan who worked on the OpenAI chip unveiled earlier in 2026. The leading AI labs such as Anthropic and OpenAI have become increasingly focused on custom chips, which can be tailored to their models and workloads. Through this, they hope to create significant performance and economic advantages. At a conference on Wednesday (Aug 26), OpenAI boasted that its first custom chip called Jalapeno outperformed a similar processor made by Nvidia. OpenAI executives noted that the chip was more energy efficient in performing inference calculations. Making a custom chip may also help Anthropic hedge against the tight supply of Nvidia's processors, which Nvidia said in a conference call on Wednesday would be in short supply through 2027. Google has developed TPUs, while Amazon has built its Trainium and Inferentia chips. Anthropic was one of the first companies to run its models on hardware from several vendors including Nvidia, Google and Amazon. The company has been seeking more computing capacity to meet surging demand for its models, including through a deal with SpaceX to use its Colossus 1 facility, which houses more than 220,000 Nvidia chips. REUTERS
Anthropic Wins Court Challenge to US Supply-Chain Risk Label
The Trump administration must lift its ban on Anthropic PBC's artificial intelligence technology for federal agencies, a US judge ruled. US District Judge Rita F. Lin in San Francisco sided late Thursday with the Claude chatbot maker in its challenge to the Department of Defense, finding that the ...
