Big Tech group voices support for Anthropic in Pentagon row

A big tech industry group consisting of major Anthropic backers Amazon and Nvidia on Wednesday expressed concern over the Pentagon's decision to declare the artificial intelligence company a supply-chain risk as other investors raced to contain fallout from the lab’s fight with the US Defense Department.

- DEEPA SEETHARAMAN KAREN FREIFELD KRYSTAL HU

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, speaks at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in February.REUTERS

(REUTERS)

In a letter dated Wednesday, the Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Nvidia, Amazon.com, Apple and OpenAl said “We are concerned by recent reports regarding the Department of War's consideration of imposing a supply-chain risk designation in response to a procurement dispute.” The letter does not name Anthropic.

In recent days, CEO Dario Amodei has discussed the matter with some of Anthropic’s major investors and partners, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, two of the people said. Venture capital firms including Lightspeed and Tconiq have also been in contact with Anthropic executives, two sources said.

Lightspeed and Iconiq are also talking to other investors about potential solutions, according to one of the sources.

Some investors are also reaching out to their contacts in the Trump administration in hopes of tamping down the tensions, two sources said. The discussions focus on avoiding a ban of Anthropic’s AI from all Pentagon contractors, the people said.