D.C. Circuit upholds Pentagon Anthropic supply-chain label

Opening

A 2-1 D.C. Circuit panel on Friday upheld the Defense Department’s March designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk, preserving the ban on Claude in DoD systems and in contractor work for the agency — CNBC; WIRED. Judge Gregory Katsas wrote for the majority (joined by Judge Neomi Rao); Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson dissented. The panel said the Department had “ample support” that continued integration of Claude by DoD or its contractors presented a covered national-security risk. Anthropic had challenged the action as arbitrary, unauthorized, and unconstitutional after talks over GenAI.mil collapsed — DoD seeking broad lawful-purpose access, Anthropic refusing use for fully autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance. A Northern District of California court vacated a parallel designation under a different statute last month; Friday’s ruling leaves the D.C.-track designation in place. An Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC the company “respectfully disagree[s],” notes the California holding, and is “considering all options, including further review.” The panel delayed immediate effect to allow rehearing / en banc / Supreme Court petitions.

The numbers

Vote — 2–1 (Katsas/Rao majority; Henderson dissent) — CNBC / WIRED.

Prior DoD contract color — Anthropic signed a $200 million Pentagon contract in July 2025; GenAI.mil deployment talks later collapsed — CNBC.

Dual-track litigation — two distinct statutory designations litigated in separate courts; N.D. Cal. vacated one; D.C. Circuit upheld the other — CNBC / WIRED.

Why it matters

Keeps a live federal-procurement bar on Claude for DoD and defense-contractor workflows even after a California vacatur of a sibling label — split authority into a years-long appeal path, with IPO-window optics for Anthropic and substitution pressure toward other frontier vendors on the military side.

Connects to

Akamai–Anthropic $11.6B CPU cloud — Same-week commercial compute lock vs a still-live DoD supply-chain bar (news).