Kamal Ghorui
Hundreds of employees working in technology companies across America have signed an open letter requesting the Department of War (DoW) and Congress to withdraw its designation of Anthropic as a “supply chain risk.” Late last week, Anthropic and the Defense Department failed to reach agreement on a long-term deal for the military to continue licensing Anthropic’s AI models. In an angry post on Truth Social, President Donald Trump wrote, “The Leftwing nut jobs at Anthropic have made a DISASTROUS MISTAKE trying to STRONG-ARM the Department of War, and force them to obey their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution. Their selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY. Therefore, I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again! There will be a Six Month phase out period for Agencies like the Department of War who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed up in a post that he would define Anthropic as a ‘supply chain risk’ to national security.The open letter calls upon US Congress to step in against the ‘supply chain risk’ label on Anthropic. It asks Congress to “examine whether the use of these extraordinary authorities against an American technology company is appropriate.” The signatories of the open letter include ‘founders, engineers, investors, and executives’ from major technology and venture capital companies including Anthropic, OpenAI, Slack, IBM, Cursor, Salesforce Databricks and more. Here’s the open letter.Following Anthropic’s exit from the Peantagon deal, OpenAI secured a contract to deploy technology on the US Department of Defense’s classified network. For this, the ChatGPT maker faced a lot of backlash and scrutiny after which Altman has recenlty said that OpenAI is changing its contract with Pentagon.
An Open Letter to the Department of War and Congress
We write as founders, engineers, investors, and executives in the American technology industry. We strongly believe the federal government should not retaliate against a private company for declining to accept changes to a contract.When two parties cannot agree on terms, the normal course is to part ways and work with a competitor. Instead, the Department of War has designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk” (a label normally reserved for foreign adversaries), stating that “no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.”This situation sets a dangerous precedent. Punishing an American company for declining to accept changes to a contract sends a clear message to every technology company in America: accept whatever terms the government demands, or face retaliation. The United States is winning the AI competition because of its commitment to free enterprise and the rule of law; undermining that commitment to punish one company is short-sighted and antithetical to our national security interests.We urge the Department of War to withdraw its supply chain risk designation and resolve this dispute through normal commercial channels. Further, we urge Congress to examine whether the use of these extraordinary authorities against an American technology company is appropriate.Respectfully,
