Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei apologises for internal memo criticising Trump, says ‘difficult day… views out-of-date’

The United States Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) and Anthropic PBC have confirmed that the AI ​​company has been officially designated a ‘Supply Chain Risk’ (SCR) by the government.

In a blog post published on Thursday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said the company received a letter to this effect from the DoW the previous day, March 4, and added that Anthropic would take legal action against the move.

Amodei also apologized for an internal memo in which he criticized US President Donald Trump, adding that the assessment was “outdated” and not the company’s.

‘I do not believe that this action is legally correct’

“Yesterday (March 4) Anthropic received a letter from the War Department confirming that we pose a supply chain risk to America’s national security. We do not believe this action is legally sound and see no option but to challenge it in court,” Amodei said.

He added that the applicable law (10 USC 3252) was “narrowly focused” and existed to “protect the government rather than punish the supplier.” SCR “does not (and cannot) limit Claude’s use or business dealings with Anthropic unless they relate to its own War Department contracts,” the statement said.

According to the CEO, Anthropic had been “having productive discussions” with the DoW “over the last few days.”

“The War Department and our company are committed to advancing U.S. national security and agree on the urgency of implementing AI across government. The language used by DoW aligns with our statement on Friday that the vast majority of customers are not affected by the SCR definition,” he told reporters.

‘Leaked internal post is an outdated review’

Amodei also told reporters that the leaked memo “does not reflect my careful or considered views and is an outdated assessment of the current situation.”

Specifically, before speaking to the media, Amodei apologized in a blog post about recent updates to its dealings with the DoW.

The statement included the following: “I would also like to directly apologize for a post internally leaked to the press yesterday. Anthropic did not leak this post or direct anyone else to do so; it is not in our interest to escalate this situation.”

The blog also provided context for the memo: “This post was written within hours of the President’s Truth Social post announcing that Anthropic would be removed from all federal systems, the Secretary of War’s X post announcing that supply chain risk had been identified, and the announcement of an agreement between the Pentagon and OpenAI that even OpenAI later called confusing.”

“It was a difficult day for the company and I apologize for the tone of the post. It does not reflect my careful or considered views. It was also written six days ago and is an outdated assessment of the current situation.”

What awaits Anthropic?

The priority, according to the CEO, is to ensure that national security experts “are not left without important tools.”

He added: “Our only concern is our exceptions for fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. We will provide our models to the DoW and the national security community at nominal cost and with the continued support of our engineers.”

Amodei added that Anthropic will continue to provide its models for the transition “as long as necessary and permitted.”

The SCR clarified in its appointment that this only applies to use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the DoW and “does not apply to all uses of Claude by customers with such contracts.”

What does this mean for Anthropic’s customers?

According to the company, SCR can only cover the use of Claude as part of DoW contracts, not how contractors use Claude to serve other customers. In practice this means:

• If you are an individual customer or have a commercial agreement with Anthropic, your access to Claude through our API, Claude.ai, or any of our products is completely unaffected.
• If you are a DoW contractor, this designation (if formally accepted) will affect your use of Claude for DoW contract work only. It added that your use for any other purpose will not be affected.