Silicon Valley Quietly Rebels Against Trump, Says Anthropic is “One of Our Own”

“It’s one of our own.” Those four words from veteran Silicon Valley SVAQ +0.20% ▲ venture capitalist John O’Farrell captured the industry’s reaction after the Pentagon designated Anthropic a “supply chain risk”. A move Anthropic has challenged in two federal lawsuits as legally unsound and retaliatory. Companies like Google GOOGL -2.57% ▼ , Microsoft MSFT -1.91% ▼ , Amazon AMZN -1.51% ▼ , and Palantir PLTR -3.56% ▼ have since weighed in, marking a rare moment of collective pushback against President Donald Trump’s administration.

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Silicon Valley Breaks Silence and Sides with Anthropic

Anthropic’s dispute with the Pentagon triggered a broader Silicon Valley response. Senior executives across the industry worked behind the scenes to rally support, nudging organizations to file briefs while enabling AI researchers to speak freely. Microsoft took the strongest stance, filing a court brief in support of Anthropic’s lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Amazon and Google confirmed that customers could continue using Anthropic services for non-government purposes. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told lawmakers he disagreed with the Pentagon’s designation, while Palantir CEO Alex Karp said he was “very sympathetic” to arguments against deploying AI products domestically. Notably, Nvidia NVDA -3.08% ▼ CEO Jensen Huang was the only major tech chief executive to publicly address the dispute, saying he hoped it could be resolved.

How Anthropic’s AI Red Lines Triggered a Pentagon Blacklist

The dispute began when contract talks between the Pentagon and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei broke down over the company’s opposition to the use of AI in autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance. In a response to one of Anthropic’s lawsuits, the government labeled the company an “unacceptable risk” to national security, arguing it could alter its technology to suit its own interests in a time of war.

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In late Feb., over 100 Google AI employees sent an internal letter to DeepMind chief Jeff Dean, urging the company to adopt “red lines” similar to Anthropic’s stance. By early March, a joint open letter from worker groups across Google, Amazon, and Microsoft called on executives to resist the Pentagon’s pressure.

Shortly after, researchers from Google, including its chief scientist Jeff Dean and OpenAI, signed a court brief warning that the Pentagon’s action could undermine U.S. competitiveness in AI. On March 17, nearly 150 retired federal and state judges, appointed by both Republican and Democratic administrations, filed an amicus brief backing  Anthropic’s lawsuit.

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