Palantir is still using Anthropic's Claude as Pentagon blacklist plays out, CEO Karp says

In this articlePalantir is still using Anthropic's Claude as the artificial intelligence startup's clash with the Pentagon plays out, CEO Alex Karp told CNBC Thursday."The Department of War is planning to phase out Anthropic; currently, it's not phased out," Karp told CNBC's Seema Mody at Palantir's AIPcon 9 in Maryland. "Our products are integrated with Anthropic, and in the future, it will probably be integrated with other large language models."The Department of Defense officially designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk last week, but is still using Claude models to support the war in Iran, as CNBC previously reported.Anthropic sued the Trump administration on Monday to reverse the supply chain risk designation and is seeking a stay on the DOD action.This is the first time that Palantir has commented since the Pentagon's designation. Anthropic and Palantir partnered with Amazon Web Services to support the DOD in 2024.Other defense tech companies have told employees to stop using Claude as the clash plays out, including Lockheed Martin.

Defense Department Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael told CNBC Thursday that it would take time for the government to transition away from Anthropic's models."You can't just rip out a system that's deeply embedded overnight," Michael told CNBC's "Squawk Box."At the end of February, President Donald Trump lashed out at Anthropic in a post on Truth Social, calling its staff "leftwing nut jobs." In the post, Trump said federal agencies will have a six-month period to phase out the company's products.An internal Pentagon memo sent by Chief Information Officer Kirsten Davies last week said use of Anthropic's tools may continue beyond the six-month period if deemed critical to national security.The memo, first reported Tuesday by CBS News, told senior leadership that exemptions will be considered for "mission-critical activities," in rare circumstances where "no viable alternative exists.""If we're in a conflict six months from now and we have a sensitive operation that we need to continue, obviously, we're going to make exceptions so we don't put current operations at risk," Michael said Thursday. "But otherwise, six months is the plan."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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