AI Battle: Big Tech Sides With Anthropic Against Trump
5 tech giants rally behind Anthropic in a dramatic Big Tech vs Trump legal clash over AI policy, free speech, and Pentagon contracts.
Several major US tech companies have joined Anthropic in its case against Trump administration leaders.
Since Monday, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft have publicly supported Anthropic's legal action to overturn Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to ban it from being used as a "supply chain risk."
In legal filings, these major tech companies expressed concern about government retaliation against Anthropic for refusing to allow their tools to be used in mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Microsoft warned that this government action could have "widespread adverse effects on the entire technology sector."
Microsoft, which works extensively with the US government and Department of Defense (DoD), said it agrees with Anthropic that AI tools should not be used to conduct domestic mass surveillance or put the country in a position where autonomous machines could single-handedly start a war.
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A joint amicus filing, a filing by parties with a strong interest in a case, also came from several groups, including the Chamber of Progress. The tech advocacy group, funded and represented by Google, Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, and several other tech companies, said they were concerned about the government's punishment of Anthropic for public speech.
The Chamber of Progress stressed that it is "diverse in ideology," but is concerned about the impact of the government's action on protections under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Facebook-owner Meta is one of the major tech companies supporting Anthropic's action. It left the Chamber of Progress in 2025 after several years of membership.
The Chamber of Progress stated that all of its current members "oppose government attempts to coerce or restrict access to speech."
Anthropic's lawsuit claims its free speech rights have been violated by government retaliation for its public statements, as Hegseth, President Donald Trump, and others have accused the company of being "woke" or politically at odds with the administration.
The joint amicus brief described the department's labeling of Anthropic as a risk to business as "a potentially ruinous ban" and little more than a "temper-fueled outburst."
The brief further stated, "If allowed to stand, this ban will enforce a culture of coercion, collusion, and silence, in which the public will believe the government will use any means at its disposal to punish those who dare to disagree."
Another amicus brief was filed by approximately 40 OpenAI and Google employees.
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And two dozen former high-ranking US military officers filed their own brief, stating that the government's actions "send the message that disagreeing with investments in national security carries the risk of arbitrary retaliation or disproportionate punishment."
The support of Anthropic by major tech companies may seem outlandish, given that executives from these companies have supported and donated significant sums to Trump since he returned to office last year.
The suddenness and severity of the action against Anthropic appears to have crossed a line for major tech companies. At a court hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday, an Anthropic lawyer stated that the DoD has "firmly contacted Anthropic's customers, urging them to cease working with Anthropic.
" A Department of Justice lawyer representing the government did not deny such actions and declined to say that the government would not take further action against Anthropic. "When the government starts overstepping its bounds and stepping into the basic level of capitalism, alarm bells go off," said Gary Ellis, chief executive of Remesh AI, who previously worked in US politics.
"If the government can do that and blacklist a company that has very good technology, these executives know it's serious and can quickly impact them." Although officials claimed they didn't want Anthropic's technology used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, Anthropic claims Hegseth began insisting on removing such restrictions in its government contract. Anthropic and the DoD spent weeks negotiating the changed contract language, and the dispute became public in February. Anthropic's chief executive, Dario Amodei, then refused to remove the guardrails entirely.
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This prompted Trump to criticize the company, who announced on his Truthout social platform that Anthropic tools like Cloud, which are used by government and military agencies, would be removed from the entire government by 2024.
Hegseth then labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk and not secure enough for government use, the first time an American company had received such a label.
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John Coleman, legislative counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech advocacy group that was part of the joint amicus brief, said he expects more such "clashes" between Anthropic and the DoD, as tensions grow between tech leaders' right to express themselves and government claims of national security issues.
"We hope other Silicon Valley companies will, like Anthropic, stick to their principles and refuse federal pressure to abandon them," Coleman said. "A free society deserves nothing less."
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