Top Pentagon official reaffirms Anthropic blacklist despite Lutnick comments
Pentagon official Emil Michael on Thursday said that Anthropic is still considered a " supply chain risk ," a day after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the company is "back on the right side." Why it matters: The Trump administration is not entirely aligned on one of the world's leading AI labs following months of fighting over how the military can use its models. What they're saying:…
Pentagon official Emil Michael reinforced that Anthropic remains a supply chain risk on Thursday, despite Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's recent assertion that the company is back on the right side. This discrepancy highlights a divide within the Trump administration regarding the world's leading AI lab. On X, Michael posted, "Anthropic is still a designated Supply Chain Risk at @DeptofWar and for the Defense Industrial Base. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
On the sidelines of the G20 Innovation Summit, Lutnick told Axios and Mike Allen that the company has complied with their requests and is now considered trustworthy. When questioned about his trust in Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Lutnick affirmed, "Yes, we trust Anthropic." The tension between the administration and Anthropic intensified under Amodei's leadership, but co-founder Tom Brown has been stepping up to strengthen the company's relationship with the White House.
However, a federal judge recently overturned the Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, and the company is still contesting another Pentagon designation under a different statute in the D.C. Circuit. Thus, Anthropic's relationship with the Trump administration remains uncertain as Brown continues to play a more prominent role.
Written by urgent.news from Axios's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
