Microsoft on Thursday said it will continue using AI startup Anthropic’s Claude AI, twitter-tweetded in its products for clients, except in projects related to the US Department of Defense.
The statement comes after the Defense Department, which the Trump administration calls the Department of War, sent a formal notice to Anthropic severing its ties with the company and labelling it a ‘supply chain risk’.
Microsoft became the first major company to say it will keep working with Anthropic in non-government-related projects following the Pentagon’s notification.
“Our lawyers have studied the designation and have concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers — other than the Department of War — through platforms such as M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry and that we can continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense related projects,” Reuters and CNBC quoted a Microsoft spokesperson as saying.
Some defence technology companies have asked their employees to refrain from using Anthropic’s Claude models and migrate to alternatives.
Microsoft provides its tools to several US government agencies. The Department of War extensively uses Microsoft 365 productivity software. The company in September said it was integrating Anthropic’s generative AI models into the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on for Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
Which other companies use Anthropic’s AI models?
Amazon, an investor in Anthropic and a significant customer of the company’s Claude model, did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
Palantir’s Maven Smart Systems – a software platform that supplies militaries with intelligence analysis and weapons targeting – uses multiple prompts and workflows built using Anthropic’s Claude code, Reuters earlier reported.
Pentagon puts Anthropic on ban list
The Pentagon slapped a formal supply-chain risk designation on the artificial intelligence lab Anthropic on Thursday. Reuters reported that the US military used Anthropics Claude AI system in its war with Iran.
The “supply-chain risk” label, confirmed in a statement by Anthropic, is effective immediately and bars government contractors from using Anthropic’s technology in their work for the US military.
However, companies can still use the Claude AI model in other projects unrelated to the Pentagon, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wrote in the statement. He said the designation has “a narrow scope” and that the restrictions only apply to the usage of Anthropic AI in Pentagon contracts.
“It plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts.”
The risk designation follows a months-long dispute over the company’s insistence on safeguards that the Defense Department, which the Trump administration calls the Department of War, said went too far. In his statement, Amodei reiterated that the company would challenge the designation in court.
The action represented an extraordinary rebuke by the United States against an American tech company that was earlier than its rivals in working with the Pentagon. The action comes as the department continues to rely on Anthropic’s technology to provide support for military operations, including in Iran, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
- Microsoft’s commitment to Anthropic highlights the complexity of AI partnerships in the defense sector.
- The Pentagon’s supply chain risk designation could reshape the landscape for AI firms working with government contracts.
- Legal challenges may emerge as Anthropic contests the Pentagon’s decision.
