An industry group representing Apple is expressing concern about the Pentagon’s Anthropic ban

The Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Apple, sent a letter to the Pentagon citing Anthropic’s designation as a “supply chain risk.” Here are the details.

The book, however, does not mention Anthropic by name

Last Friday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth published a text on X saying he had ordered his department to “designate Anthropic a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.”

The decision followed weeks of negotiations over a $200 million contract involving two divisions of Anthropic that it refused to accept, including the use of its technology in home surveillance and autonomous weapons.

Under this designation, which has never been applied to a domestic company before, “no contractor, supplier, or partner doing business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic.”

This decision has alarmed many people in the industry because they fear that it will follow any company if it fails to meet the government’s requirements, no matter what they are.

Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, tech executives have been bending over backwards to stay on top of the administration’s best practices, fearing a backlash that often takes the form of tariffs and regulatory threats.

Being designated as a Supply-Chain Risk to National Security has taken things to the next level, hence, as Reuters reported, the Information Technology Industry Council sent a letter to Hegseth expressing its concerns.

In accordance with ReutersThe book didn’t specifically name Anthropic, instead focusing on the nomination and its potential consequences:

“We are concerned by recent reports about the Department of Defense’s consideration of risking supply in response to a procurement dispute,” the Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Nvidia, Amazon.com, and Apple, said in a letter Wednesday.

[…]

The letter, sent to Hegseth on Wednesday, also said the announcement threatens to “undermine the government’s access to high-quality products and services from American companies that serve all agencies and parts of the federal government,” according to a copy seen by Reuters.

Reuters he says, in a letter, the council’s CEO Jason Oxman argued that terms like Supply-Chain Risk to National Security “exist in real emergencies and are reserved for organizations designated as foreign enemies,” adding that such conflicts should be resolved by using alternative procurement methods, or by selecting existing suppliers.

In response, the Defense Department said it would follow its standard practice of “responding directly to the authors as appropriate.”

You will learn Reuters‘ full report, follow this link.

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