Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic, at a conference in New York on December 3, 2025. KARSTEN MORAN/NYT-REDUX-REA
Tensions have flared between the Pentagon and Anthropic, one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence (AI). Anthropic is among the start-ups to which the US military awarded a $200 million (€168 million) contract in summer 2025 to access its AI models, including its assistant Claude. However, the two parties disagreed over the restrictions imposed by Anthropic. The company did not want to see its tools used to monitor populations or to manufacture weapons that are too autonomous, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters at the end of January.
This disagreement is symbolic of broader friction between the Trump administration and the company founded by Dario Amodei, who supported Democratic candidate Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election. While he has refrained from directly attacking the American president, the head of Anthropic has made his caution regarding AI clear and keeps his distance from the Trump camp. He seeks to set himself apart from competitors such as Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk of xAI, who have become public supporters of Trump.
