Pentagon Gives Anthropic Friday Deadline to Drop AI Guardrails or Lose $200M Military Contract

Summary

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met personally with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on February 24, 2026 and delivered an ultimatum: remove restrictions on Claude's military usage by end of business Friday (February 27) or face a cascade of punitive consequences. The specific threats included termination of Anthropic's existing $200 million Pentagon contract, designation as a "supply chain risk" — effectively blacklisting the company from future government work — and potential invocation of the Defens