The OpenAI rival has options in its showdown with the Pentagon.

Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei until Friday to grant the Pentagon unrestricted access to Claude or face losing its defence contract and a government blacklist designation.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says the artificial intelligence company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Pentagon’s demands to allow wider use of its technology.

Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic a deadline of 5:01 p.m. ET on Friday to agree to the removal of all safeguards, threatening to boot Claude from U.S. military systems or designate the company as a “supply chain risk,” a label used for adversaries of the U.S. that’s never been applied to an American company before.

Defense officials in the Trump administration also warned they could designate Anthropic, which makes the AI chatbot Claude, as a supply chain risk — or invoke a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to give the military more sweeping authority to use its products, even if the company doesn’t approve.

The decision comes ahead of a Friday deadline to reach an agreement or face tough government measures.

Tech lawyers and AI policymakers warn that the Pentagon’s plans to compel Anthropic to abandon its ethical red lines are contradictory and could chill partnerships between the government and Silicon Valley.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic until Friday at 5 p.m. to grant the military unresticted use of its AI technology.