A federal court granted a preliminary injunction against the § 3252 designation, but the broader § 4713 designation remains in effect for now.
On March 3, 2026, the U.S. Department of War (DoW) designated frontier AI model developer Anthropic as a “supply chain risk” to national security. The designation followed a breakdown in contract renegotiations in which DoW sought to have Anthropic remove certain usage restrictions from its AI models.
DoW designated Anthropic under two separate statutory authorities, 10 U.S.C. § 3252 and 41 U.S.C. § 4713. This was preceded by a social media post from President Trump ordering all federal agencies to cease use of Anthropic's technology (the “Presidential Directive”) and a post from Secretary of War Hegseth barring DoW contractors from “any commercial activity” with the company (the “Hegseth Directive”).
