The Trump administration has drafted aggressive new guidelines for civilian artificial intelligence contracts, requiring companies to permit "all lawful" uses of their models by the US government.
This move follows a high-level standoff between the Department of Defense and Anthropic, which culminated on Thursday with the Pentagon designating the AI company a "supply chain risk."
Market sentiment in the tech sector remained cautious following the report's release. AI-related stocks fluctuated as investors weighed the potential for broader regulatory action against "ethical" restrictions that conflict with national security objectives. The Nasdaq 100 fell 1.51% by 11:59 PM (Moscow time), while Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares fell 0.42% and Alphabet Inc Class A (NASDAQ:GOOGL) shares declined 0.78% as the industry assessed the impact of the U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) "irrevocable license" requirement.
Anthropic has been designated a "supply chain risk."
New regulations from the General Services Administration (GSA) demonstrate a toughening of the military's stance. The Pentagon's designation of Anthropic as a "supply chain risk," a label typically reserved for foreign entities like Huawei, effectively prohibits any government contractor from using the company's technology.
The "blacklisting" follows a months-long dispute over Anthropic's refusal to lift safeguards against mass domestic surveillance and the use of its Claude models in lethal autonomous weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the decision on Friday, saying the US requires "patriotic" technology partners who don't set restrictive "red lines" for legitimate operations. Anthropic argues the decision is legally unfounded and plans to challenge it in court.
The Trump administration has granted agencies a six-month transition period to abandon Anthropic's systems.
Ideological Neutrality and Disclosure Requirements
A recently published GSA draft requires AI contractors not to "intentionally inject partisan or ideological bias" into their output. The rule aims to eliminate what the administration describes as "built-in bias" in government-funded models.
Companies must now disclose if their models have been modified to comply with regulatory frameworks outside the US, such as the European Union's AI Act. Analysts at Evercore ISI noted that these requirements could lead to a "decoupling" of the US AI stack from global standards. Traders are now closely monitoring the reaction of OpenAI, which reportedly stepped in to fill the Pentagon vacuum shortly after Anthropic's expulsion.