Defense experts defend Anthropic in letter to Congress, slam DoD for setting 'dangerous precedent'

A group of former defense and intelligence officials and policy experts sent a letter on Thursday to Congress calling for an investigation into the Pentagon's decision to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk.The bipartisan coalition of 30 people said in the letter, shared with CNBC, that the purpose of deeming an entity a supply chain risk is "to protect the United States from infiltration by foreign adversaries." The group characterized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision last Friday against Anthropic as a "profound departure" that "sets a dangerous precedent."Hegseth announced the directive on X, after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using Anthropic, whose Claude models and services have skyrocketed in popularity, largely in the enterprise world. "Applying this tool to penalize a U.S. firm for declining to remove safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons is a category error with consequences that extend far beyond this dispute," the group said in the letter, addressed to the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.Signatories include retired U.S.

Navy Vice Admiral Donald Arthur, former deputy assistant secretary of defense Diana Banks Thompson, former Andreessen Horowitz general partner John O'Farrell, Kat Duffy of the Council on Foreign Relations and Inflection AI CEO Sean White."For national security, the United States is in an AI race it cannot afford to lose," the letter said. "Blacklisting one of America's leading AI companies — and requiring its thousands of contractors and partners to sever ties as well — does not strengthen our competitive position. It weakens it."The group is urging Congress to "exercise its oversight authority against this inappropriate use of executive authority" and to implement legal guardrails "protecting the United States from foreign threats, not disciplining American companies for disagreeing with the executive branch."The letter lands a day after the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), whose members include Nvidia, Google and Anthropic, sent a letter to Hegseth expressing similar concerns."Contract disputes should be resolved through continued negotiation between the parties, or by the Department selecting alternate providers through established procurement channels," ITI said in the letter. "Emergency authorities such as supply chain risk designations exist for genuine emergencies and are typically reserved for entities that have been designated as foreign adversaries."Several defense tech companies have told their workforce to stop using Anthropic's Claude service following the White House's orders, CNBC reported.WATCH: Anthropic tops $19 billion in annual revenue rate.Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inboxGet this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.© 2026 Versant Media, LLC.

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