Axios

The second and more alarming of the two Axios exclusives. This story revealed that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “close” to cutting business ties entirely, and that the Pentagon was considering the nuclear option: designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk.”

Key Quotes

• Unnamed senior Trump administration official: “Everything’s on the table” regarding the partnership
• Unnamed Pentagon official: “It will be an enormous pain in the ass to disentangle, and we are going to make sure they pay a price for forcing our hand like this.”
• Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell: “The Department of War’s relationship with Anthropic is being reviewed. Our nation requires that our partners be willing to help our warfighters win in any fight.”

The Supply Chain Risk Threat

The most significant revelation: the Pentagon was considering classifying Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” a designation normally reserved for foreign adversaries like Chinese or Russian companies. This would mean any company wanting to do business with the U.S. military would have to certify that they do not use Anthropic’s technology — effectively blacklisting the company from the entire defense industrial base.