The story between Anthropic and the Pentagon isn’t getting simpler — it’s getting more complicated. On May 7, Emil Michael, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, made it clear at the AI+ Expo in Washington: reconciliation with Anthropic is off the table.
‘Never Again Single-Threaded’
Michael’s statement was unambiguous. When asked whether Anthropic could ever sign a deal for its models to be deployed in classified networks, he replied: ‘Not at the Department of War.’ The Pentagon has since signed deals with eight other companies — including Microsoft, Google, and xAI.
The background: just over two months ago, the Pentagon declared Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk’ and excluded the company from military work. The dispute stemmed from Anthropic’s insistence that the Pentagon include safety guardrails for AI use in surveillance and autonomous attacks.
The Mythos Paradox
While the Pentagon keeps Anthropic on its blacklist, the NSA is already using Mythos Preview — Anthropic’s most powerful cybersecurity model. Mythos can detect decades-old vulnerabilities in browsers, infrastructure, and software.
Michael himself framed the situation as a ‘cyber moment’: ‘The Mythos issue is a separate national security moment. We have to make sure our networks are hardened up.’
It’s a remarkable contradiction. The Pentagon wants nothing to do with Anthropic — but the technology Anthropic is building is exactly what national security needs.
The White House Sees It Differently
While Michael holds the hard line, the White House has noticeably softened its tone. Several senior officials — Treasury Secretary Bessent, Fed Chair Powell, and reportedly Chief of Staff Susie Wiles — have spoken with Anthropic about Mythos.
Even Trump himself was surprisingly positive: ‘They’re very smart, and I think they can be of great use. I like smart people, I like high-IQ people and they definitely have high IQs.’
The question is whether the Pentagon can maintain its stance as the White House drifts in a different direction. And whether Anthropic’s decision to stand by its safety principles will pay off long-term — or whether the defense sector exclusion becomes a lasting disadvantage.
One thing is clear: this situation is far from resolved.
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