Pentagon Locks Anthropic Out of Classified AI Deals, Signs SpaceX, OpenAI, Google and 4 Others

The Pentagon announced agreements with seven leading artificial intelligence companies to deploy their technology on classified military networks, pointedly excluding Anthropic amid its ongoing dispute with the Defense Department. SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, Nvidia, Reflection, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services will be integrated into the Defense Department's most sensitive classified systems, used for mission planning, weapons targeting, and other purposes. Anthropic was designated a supply-chain risk to U.S. national security — the first such action ever taken against an American firm — after the company refused to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to its Claude models for use in fully autonomous weapons and mass domestic surveillance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that "effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner" doing business with the Pentagon may engage in any commercial activity with the company.