Anthropic, the AI company co-founded by former OpenAI researchers with a stated mission of building safe AI, just had its two most powerful models effectively shut down by the US government. The company was forced to disable access to its latest frontier models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, after the Trump administration imposed new export controls on June 12.
The directive came directly from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. It prohibits foreign nationals, including those residing in the US, from accessing the models, citing national security risks tied to their capabilities.
Here’s the thing: Anthropic didn’t just cut off foreign users. The company disabled all access to the models to avoid penalties, a move that also knocked out US subscribers and even Anthropic’s own employees. The models had been available for only days before the plug was pulled.
A feud months in the making
This didn’t come out of nowhere. The collision between Anthropic and the Trump administration has been building since February 2026, when federal agencies were prohibited from using any Anthropic products.
