Pentagon Keeps Anthropic Supply-Chain Tag as Commerce Warms
The designation survives on appeal even after a district judge vacated it under one statute, and Lutnick's praise won't change the D.C. Circuit docket.
TL;DR
Anthropic got a split-screen this week. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Bloomberg the company and the government were "in tune together" after appearing with Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown at a G20 event. A day later, Pentagon R&E official Emil Michael posted that Anthropic "is still a designated supply chain risk" at the department and within the defense industrial base. The contradiction reflects the two-track legal reality: Judge Rita Lin struck down the supply-chain risk designation under one statute in August, but a separate designation under a different statute remains on appeal at the D.C. Circuit. Meanwhile, the FCC signed Claude delivery orders in May and July, and DOE's top IT official said recently that "everybody wants" it.
The Commerce Department and the Pentagon are now saying opposite things about the same AI company, 24 hours apart. That's not incoherence by accident, it's what happens when a district court ruling and an ongoing appellate challenge leave two different statutory designations in two different postures.
Lutnick's "in tune together" framing, delivered alongside Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown, tracks with the administration's July decision to lift export controls on Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models after "weeks of negotiation." But Michael's post ("still a designated supply chain risk") points to the designation that survived Lin's August summary judgment order. Lin vacated the DOD's supply-chain risk determination under the statute aimed at the defense industrial base, and she vacated Secretary Hegseth's directive implementing a secondary boycott. She did not reach the separate designation challenged in the D.C. Circuit.
Jessica Tillipman, associate dean for government procurement law studies at George Washington University Law School, told FedScoop the contradiction reflects the underlying problem: "None of this has made sense because designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk never made sense." She noted the NSA (part of DOD) was reportedly using Anthropic's Mythos model even as the Pentagon labeled the company a risk.
Lin's ruling cited that same contradiction. In her 59-page order, she found the government's national security concerns weren't earnest, and the record suggested the administration's actions rested on Anthropic's public criticism of DOD, not on any genuine threat.
Simona Grossi, a Loyola Law School professor who filed an amicus brief supporting Anthropic, told FedScoop the mixed signals carry their own cost: "The market is not receiving clear messages and that translates into a burden for the company, others might not feel comfortable doing business with Anthropic for fear of becoming the administration's next target."
Published ·Deep Fathom