Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei returned to the negotiating table with the Pentagon to discuss how the company’s artificial intelligence models could be used by the United States military — and reignited expectations of an outcome to the impasse that had been dominating Silicon Valley’s attention.
Amodei was negotiating with Emil Michael, undersecretary of Defense for research and engineering, a contract that would define the Pentagon’s access rules to Anthropic technology. Talks, however, turned sour last week after the startup demanded formal guarantees that its AI would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or the use of autonomous weapons. In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk — a stamp normally reserved for U.S. adversaries.
Negotiations have since resumed, according to a person familiar with the matter. If the two parties reach a new agreement, the military will be able to use Anthropic’s AI again and the risk of the Pentagon placing the company on a kind of official “black list” would decrease. The move also complicates the competition’s lives: last week, OpenAI announced an agreement to allow the Pentagon to run its AI models on a classified network. Afterwards, CEO Sam Altman said he was working with the Department of Defense to put more restrictions on the use of technology in surveillance.
Anthropic did not comment on the case. A Pentagon spokesperson also did not respond to requests for comment outside of business hours. THE Financial Times had already announced the resumption of negotiations.
A hit would help clear the air around one of the fastest growing and generating expectations in the market. Valued at US$380 billion, Anthropic is on track for annual revenue close to US$20 billion, according to projections based on current performance — more than double the pace recorded at the end of last year. The dispute with the Pentagon, however, threw uncertainty over the company’s future.
It’s still difficult to measure the long-term effect of the Defense Department’s decision on Anthropic’s sales to large corporate customers, which are the heart of the business. Meanwhile, the startup is gaining traction with the general public: Anthropic’s main app recently reached the top of Apple’s download rankings, in a sign of growing support for the company.
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Much of Silicon Valley also closed with Amodei. Technology sector entities representing giants such as Google (Alphabet) and Apple are pressuring President Donald Trump to review the idea of labeling Anthropic a national security risk, arguing that this could have cascading effects for the rest of the AI industry.
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