Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is reportedly attempting a last-minute negotiation with the United States Department of Defense after the artificial intelligence firm was recently blacklisted by the US government, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Amodei has been holding discussions with Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, in an effort to finalize a deal that would allow the Pentagon to access Anthropic’s AI models. The talks come after tensions escalated between the company and US officials over the use of AI in military operations.
Michael publicly criticized Amodei last week, calling him a “liar” with a “god complex” in a post on X. He accused the Anthropic chief of attempting to impose unnecessary restrictions on military AI use, while insisting the Pentagon had only agreed to maintain human oversight of weapons systems.
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the government could designate Anthropic as a supply-chain security risk, a classification typically reserved for companies linked to foreign adversaries. Anthropic has said it plans to challenge such a designation in court.
The company maintains that earlier negotiations with the Pentagon collapsed after it insisted on two key conditions for deploying its Claude AI models in military contexts: a ban on mass domestic surveillance and a prohibition on fully autonomous weapons systems.
In an internal memo to employees, Amodei reportedly said talks broke down when the Defense Department asked Anthropic to remove a contract clause referring to the “analysis of bulk-acquired data,” which the company believed could enable large-scale surveillance.
Amodei also alleged that Anthropic was sidelined in government discussions partly because the company refused to offer what he described as “dictator-style praise” for Donald Trump. He further claimed that statements by the Pentagon and rival AI firms about the dispute were misleading.
Anthropic had previously signed a $200 million contract with the US government to deploy its AI systems in classified environments, becoming one of the first companies to do so. However, Trump later criticized the firm for what he called “selfish” behaviour and ordered federal agencies to stop working with it.
Despite the dispute, reports suggest the Pentagon may have used Anthropic’s AI tools during recent military operations involving Iran and during intelligence activities linked to the capture of Nicolás Maduro, highlighting the growing role of advanced AI systems in national security and defense planning.
Anthropic CEO in ‘Last-Ditch’ Talks with Pentagon After Trump Blacklists AI Firm
