Anthropic labelled supply risk: Tech companies defend the label as State Department embraces OpenAI

The U.S. Department of Defence has labelled Anthropic a "supply-chain risk," while President Donald Trump has ordered all federal agencies to stop using its products. With OpenAI's recent DoD deal now in place, government agencies, including the State Department, are required to rely on OpenAI's AI tools.

As the government restrict use of Anthropic’s AI tools, tech workers have pushed back, urging Congress to reverse the label, while Claude sees user migration spikes.  

Anthropic faces complete government exile

Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary, shared an X (formerly Twitter) post announcing that his department is terminating the use of Anthropic products. 

Bessent added, “The American people deserve confidence that every tool in government serves the public interest, and under President Trump, no private company will ever dictate the terms of our national security.”

Reuters also reported that the US Department of Health & Human Services has also notified its employees to switch to other AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. 

Whereas the U.S. State Department has also urged the use of OpenAI tools instead of Anthropic’s tools, in a memo. It said, “For now, StateChat will use GPT4.1 from OpenAI,” as Reuters quoted. 

The exile is due to DoD’s disagreement with Anthropic about the restrictions on how its AI will be used for autonomously targeting weapons and mass surveillance. Now, Anthropic wants strict limits on these uses, while the government demand more flexibility.

Now, with Anthropic refusing the DoD's demands, OpenAI has stepped in, signing the deal with the Defence Department and causing major backlash. 

Save Anthropic from “Supply-Chain” blacklist

Tech workers across major tech companies have signed an open letter to the Department of War and Congress to withdraw the “supply chain risk” label. 

The letter has been signed by 121 signatories from some of the global tech companies, including OpenAI, Slack, Cursor, IBM, and others.  The letter said, “We strongly believe the federal government should not retaliate against a private company for declining to accept changes to a contract.”

These works are also urging Congress “examine whether the use of these extraordinary authorities against an American technology company is appropriate.”

The letter also states that it sets a bad example when the government penalises a company for refusing to make contract changes. The signatories also said that other tech companies might feel pressured to agree to government demands out of fear. 

It stated, “The United States is winning the AI competition because of its commitment to free enterprise and the rule of law; undermining that commitment to punish one company is short-sighted and antithetical to our national security interests.”