The Pentagon is developing alternatives to Anthropic, report says

After their dramatic falling out, it doesn’t seem like Anthropic and the Pentagon are getting back together.

Instead, the Pentagon is building tools to replace Anthropic’s AI a Bloomberg interview with Cameron Stanley, the Chief Digital and AI Officer at the Pentagon.

“The ministry is actively pursuing multiple LLMs into appropriate government-owned environments,” he said. “Engineering work on these LLMs has begun and we expect them to be available for operational use very soon.”

Anthropic’s $200 million contract with the Department of Defense (DOD) fell apart in recent weeks after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on the extent to which the military could have unrestricted access to Anthropic’s AI.

While Anthropic tried to include a contractual clause prohibiting the Pentagon from using its AI for mass surveillance of Americans or deploying weapons that can fire without human intervention, the Pentagon didn’t budge. Instead, OpenAI stepped in and made its own deal with the Pentagon. The Department of Defense – known as the War Department under the Trump administration – also signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s xAI to use Grok in classified systems.

So it makes sense why the Pentagon would work to remove Anthropic’s technology from its workflows. While some reports said there was a remote possibility that Anthropic would reconcile with the Pentagon, this news suggests the administration is preparing to move on without them.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has even declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, a designation typically reserved for foreign adversaries, barring companies that work with the Pentagon from working with Anthropic. Anthropic is challenging this designation in court.