Pentagon Gives Anthropic Ultimatum in AI Use Clash

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

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🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

P.M. Edition for Feb. 24. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at a meeting today that the company has until Friday to comply with the Pentagon’s demands on using its artificial-intelligence models, or Anthropic’s contract may be canceled. Plus, Meta and AMD announce a chip deal worth $100 billion. Journal reporter Robbie Whelan discusses what the deal entails, and why it’s got investors excited. And, in an exclusive, we’re reporting that the Trump administration is considering requiring banks to collect citizenship information from customers. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Pentagon gives Anthropic an ultimatum in their spat over use of the company's AI tools.
0:09.3	Plus, U.S. stocks rise after META and AMD announce a $100 billion chip deal.
0:14.9	It might feel sort of circular because it is.
0:17.2	But we're still in the stage of the AI boom right now, where every one of these big deals is such a big headline and it's so exciting for investors, that investors just bid
0:25.0	up the stocks of the companies that are doing them. And what lawmakers are doing to address the
0:29.3	housing affordability crisis? It's Tuesday, February 24th. I'm Alex Osloaf for the Wall Street
0:35.1	Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.
0:46.0	A meeting today between Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef and Anthropic CEO Dario Amadeh ended in an ultimatum.
0:53.5	Anthropic has until Friday to comply with the Pentagon's demands on using its artificial intelligence models, or the company's contract will be canceled.
1:01.6	That's according to people familiar with the matter.
1:04.0	The people said that if Anthropic doesn't show more flexibility working with the military, Hickseth said that he could label the company a supply chain risk,
1:11.6	a move typically reserved for overseas companies linked to foreign adversaries. Or he said he could
1:17.1	invoke the Defense Production Act to essentially force the company to work more collaboratively
1:21.6	with the Pentagon. Experts have said that either move would be nearly unprecedented. The meeting
1:26.5	comes after a recent feud between
1:28.2	the Pentagon and Anthropic. Hickseth wants the military to be able to use Anthropics, Claude,
1:33.1	and other AI tools in all lawful use cases, including domestic surveillance and autonomous
1:37.9	lethal activities. A move the company has resisted. In other AI news, META has agreed to buy six gigawatts worth of artificial intelligence computing
1:47.6	power from advanced micro devices.
1:50.1	The deal is valued at more than $100 billion and could result in meta owning as much as
1:54.7	10% of AMD's stock.
1:57.0	For more about the deal, I'm joined now by Robbie Wheelan, who covers semiconductors for the journal.
	...

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