Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has reportedly held discussions with officials from the U.S. Department of Defense in an attempt to secure a contract that would allow the Pentagon to use the company’s artificial intelligence models. The development was reported Wednesday by the Financial Times.
According to the report, Amodei has been in talks with Emil Michael, the U.S. under-secretary of defense for research and engineering, as part of ongoing efforts to revive negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon. Several sources familiar with the discussions confirmed the meetings.
The renewed talks come only days after previous negotiations between Anthropic and the Pentagon reportedly collapsed. At the time, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the AI startup could be labeled a potential supply chain risk if an agreement could not be reached.
The disagreements largely centered on certain contractual terms that Anthropic believed were necessary to prevent its artificial intelligence technology from being used for mass domestic surveillance or lethal autonomous weapons systems.
In an internal memo sent to employees, Amodei explained that part of the conflict with the Pentagon involved concerns about the analysis of large-scale or “bulk” data collected by the government, which the company viewed as potentially problematic.
Amodei also reportedly suggested that Anthropic may have been sidelined because the company did not provide what he described as “dictator-style” praise for U.S. President Donald Trump, according to media reports.
Anthropic, which is backed by major technology companies including Amazon and Alphabet, previously signed a $200 million agreement with the Pentagon in July 2025. Under that contract, Anthropic’s AI models became the first to be integrated with the Department of Defense’s classified data systems.
Meanwhile, competition in the defense AI sector has intensified. Rival company OpenAI secured its own contract with the Pentagon shortly after negotiations with Anthropic stalled. Reports also indicate that OpenAI is pursuing an additional agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
