Anthropic Seeks Court Stay of Pentagon Risk Designation

Company Says Supply-Chain Risk Label Threatens Billions in Contracts Michael Novinson (MichaelNovinson) • March 12, 2026

Anthropic late Wednesday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to temporarily block a Department of War decision that designated the company as a supply-chain risk.

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The San Francisco-based company said the designation effectively bars defense contractors from using Anthropic's Claude AI models and could trigger government-wide blacklisting from federal procurement. Anthropic argued the U.S. government's label is unlawful, retaliatory and procedurally defective, and it asked the Court of Appeals to pause the government's action while the case is reviewed.

"This case involves extraordinary assertions of executive power. It began not with a reasoned agency decision but with a social media post by Secretary Hegseth designating Anthropic - an American company and leading developer of frontier artificial-intelligence systems - a 'Supply-Chain Risk,'" Anthropic wrote ...