Image Credits:Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg / Getty Images7:56 AM PDT · April 18, 2026
Despite precocious being designated a supply-chain hazard by the Pentagon, Anthropic is inactive talking to high-level members of the Trump administration.
There were earlier signs of a thawing narration — oregon a consciousness that not each portion of the medication wanted to chopped disconnected Anthropic — with reports saying that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell were encouraging the heads of large banks to trial retired Anthropic’s caller Mythos model.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark seemed to corroborate this, claiming that the ongoing combat implicit the supply-chain hazard designation is simply a “narrow contracting dispute” that would not interfere with the company’s willingness to little the authorities astir its latest models.
Then connected Friday, Axios reported that Bessent and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles had met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. In a statement, the White House described this arsenic an “introductory meeting” that was “productive and constructive.”
“We discussed opportunities for collaboration, arsenic good arsenic shared approaches and protocols to code the challenges associated with scaling this technology,” the White House said.
Similarly, Anthropic issued a statement confirming that Amodei had met with “senior medication officials for a productive treatment connected however Anthropic and the U.S. authorities tin enactment unneurotic connected cardinal shared priorities specified arsenic cybersecurity, America’s pb successful the AI race, and AI safety.”
The institution added that it’s “looking guardant to continuing these discussions.”
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The quality betwixt Anthropic and the Pentagon seemingly began aft failed negotiations implicit the military’s usage of Anthropic’s models; the AI institution sought to support safeguards astir the usage of its exertion for afloat autonomous weapons and wide home surveillance. (OpenAI rapidly announced a subject woody of its own, starring to immoderate consumer backlash.)
The Pentagon subsequently declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk — a statement that’s mostly reserved for overseas adversaries and could severely bounds the usage of Anthropic’s models by the government. The institution is challenging that designation successful court.
But it sounds similar the remainder of the Trump medication doesn’t stock the Pentagon’s hostility, with an medication root telling Axios that “every agency” but the Department of Defense wants to usage the company’s technology.
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s play editor. Previously, helium worked arsenic a tech newsman astatine Adweek, a elder exertion astatine VentureBeat, a section authorities newsman astatine the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of contented astatine a VC firm. He lives successful New York City.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Anthony by emailing anthony.ha@techcrunch.com.















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