The Pentagon listed Anthropic as a supply chain risk at the beginning of the year, but the White House opened another door at the same time. The attitudes of various departments of the US government towards Silicon Valley's top AI company have never been so divided.
On October 17th, Eastern Time, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessenter and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the White House . A White House spokesperson characterized the meeting as a "preliminary meeting," describing the process as "constructive and productive."
The root cause of tensions: the red line on weapons.
The rift between Anthropic and the Trump administration stemmed from the breakdown of military contract negotiations. Anthropic insisted on clear limitations on the use of its technology, refusing to allow it to be applied to autonomous weapons systems and large-scale domestic surveillance. This was unacceptable to the Department of Defense.
After negotiations broke down, the Pentagon designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk, effectively placing a warning label on it within the federal procurement system. Anthropic has chosen to fight back and is currently challenging the Pentagon's administrative decision by filing a lawsuit in court.
A Bridge to the Banking Industry: An Unexpected Breakthrough in the Mythos Model
Another potential avenue for thawing this relationship is the financial regulatory arena. It is understood that Bessant and Federal Reserve Chairman Powell are actively encouraging major banks to test Anthropic's newly launched Mythos model.
This move is significant. If the federal government's financial regulators proactively endorse Anthropic's corporate clients, it effectively removes compliance concerns regarding Mythos's deployment on Wall Street. Compared to the stalemate in the defense sector, this route through the Treasury Department becomes a side door for Anthropic to enter the federal ecosystem.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark also continued to appear at government events during this period, indicating that the company was consciously pursuing multiple political paths simultaneously.
Apart from the Ministry of Defense, various departments want to use Claude.
Behind this protracted negotiation lies deep division within Washington. According to sources close to the negotiations, "almost every department" of the federal government, except for the Department of Defense, is interested in adopting Anthropic's technology.
The Treasury Department, the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, and other agencies have a strong demand for Claude's enterprise version, but the Pentagon's supply chain risk label has put the procurement departments of some agencies in a legal dilemma.
This institutional division reflects the internal tension within the Trump administration regarding AI policy: security hawks want to pressure all AI companies unwilling to fully comply with military needs, but the pragmatic needs of other departments are quietly pushing policy in another direction.
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