By Deepa Seetharaman, Krystal Hu and Jeffrey Dastin
SAN FRANCISCO, March 4 (Reuters) - Some Anthropic investors are racing to contain fallout from the AI research lab's dispute with the Pentagon, seven people familiar with the matter said, for fear that an ongoing spat could devastate the company's business.
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 Iconiq have also been in contact with Anthropic executives, two sources said.
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.
Anthropic and the Pentagon are continuing some talks in the meantime, one of the people said. Reuters was unable to determine what such talks entailed. U.S. President Donald Trump has called on Anthropic to help the government phase out its AI systems.
The Pentagon and investors including Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Anthropic and the Defense Department, which the Trump administration renamed the Department of War, have been in a months-long dispute over how the military can use its technology on the battlefield. The clash is widely seen as a referendum on how much control AI companies can have over the technology they've built, systems they hope can transform education, public services and other aspects of society.
The Pentagon has pushed AI companies to drop red lines in favor of abiding by an all-lawful use clause. But Anthropic has refused to back down on bans for its Claude AI to power autonomous weapons and mass U.S. surveillance.
Anthropic was first among peer AI companies to work with classified information through a supply deal via cloud provider Amazon. OpenAI said Friday that it reached its own classified deal with the Pentagon and that Anthropic should not be labeled a risk to the department.
FUNDING RISKS
During talks with Anthropic executives, investors have reiterated their support for the San Francisco-based AI lab while also expressing their desire to find a solution with the Pentagon, the seven people said. Some investors told Reuters they were frustrated that CEO Amodei antagonized rather than cultivated Pentagon officials. "It's an ego and diplomacy problem," one of the people briefed on the matter said.
At this point, some investors said, Amodei cannot be seen as capitulating to the administration without alienating a core group of employees and consumers who have flocked to Anthropic because of his stance.
Amodei, who did not respond to a request for comment, has said Anthropic cannot "in good conscience accede to their request." While speaking to investors late Tuesday, Amodei said the company would "continue to work to figure out a solution with the DoW."
The investors taking a stance on Pentagon talks are focused on helping Anthropic avoid being designated a "supply-chain risk" by the U.S. government, which, if implemented, could deliver a severe blow to the startup's fast-growing sales to business customers.
Demand has risen for Anthropic's products such as its chatbot Claude and coding assistant Claude Code. Claude was the most-downloaded free app in the Apple App Store on Monday, surpassing OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said such a risk designation would require all government contractors to stop using Anthropic's technology in any part of their business. Anthropic has publicly pushed back on Hegseth's comments, saying he does not have the statutory authority to block use of its AI outside of defense contracts. The Pentagon did not answer a request for comment on Anthropic's claim.
Anthropic also said Friday it would challenge any supply-chain risk designation in court.
Still, some investors worry the spat could scare off potential customers who are looking to avoid being in the administration's crosshairs generally, one of the people said.
These worries come at a critical time for the startup. Anthropic has raised tens of billions of dollars on lofty expectations for its enterprise sales, which make up about 80% of Anthropic's revenue, the startup has said.
The success of future share sales, including its widely anticipated initial public offering, hinges on Anthropic's continuing to build its business revenue. Anthropic is in the process of letting employees sell shares to investors, and the company has previously said there is no decision yet on its IPO.
Anthropic's revenue run rate, or its projected annual revenue based on current data, is about $19 billion, one of the people said, up from $14 billion just a few weeks ago.
The push from investors came as several U.S. government agencies started terminating their use of Anthropic's technology, with the State Department switching to rival OpenAI, following Trump's order on Friday to dump Anthropic within the next six months.
(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman and Krystal Hu in San Francisco; additional reporting by Mike Stone in Washington D.C. and Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; editing by Kenneth Li and Nick Zieminski)
