Anthropic maintains cloud access despite US defense designation

On Thursday, the US Department of Defense designated the American artificial-intelligence startup Anthropic as a supply-chain risk. Despite this regulatory action, major cloud providers—including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon—have reportedly confirmed that they will continue to provide Anthropic’s Claude models to their non-defense customers. The reassurance from these cloud providers is intended to signal to enterprise clients that their access to the models remains secure for workloads that are not associated with defense contracts.

The “supply-chain risk” designation is a regulatory label typically reserved for foreign adversaries. For Anthropic, the designation restricts the Pentagon from utilizing the startup’s products once Claude is transitioned off its systems. It also requires any company or agency that works with the Pentagon to certify that they do not use Anthropic’s models. Anthropic plans to fight the designation in court. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sought to clarify the limits of the ruling, stating that, “With respect to our customers, it plainly applies only to the use of Claude by customers as a direct part of contracts with the Department of War, not all use of Claude by customers who have such contracts,” according to his statement. Amodei added that even for contractors of the Department of War, the designation does not and cannot limit the use of Claude or business relationships with Anthropic if those activities are unrelated to their specific defense contracts.

Microsoft and Google have both issued statements confirming that their platforms will continue to support Anthropic products for non-defense clients, effectively insulating the broader enterprise market from the regulatory friction. A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the company’s lawyers studied the designation and concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to customers—other than the Department of Defense—through platforms such as M365 (Microsoft’s productivity suite), GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry (its AI platform). The spokesperson added that Microsoft can continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense related projects. Similarly, a Google spokesperson stated that the company understands the determination does not preclude Google from working with Anthropic on non-defense related projects, and that Anthropic’s products remain available through platforms like Google Cloud. Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers and partners can also reportedly continue to use Claude for their non-defense workloads.

Why it matters

The Department of Defense’s designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk creates a complex regulatory environment for federal contractors. However, the swift clarification from major cloud providers ensures that commercial enterprise access to these artificial-intelligence models remains largely uninterrupted.