An Open Letter to the Department of War and Congress

A coalition of technology industry leaders has published an open letter urging the Department of War and Congress to reverse course on its punitive action against AI company Anthropic. The letter, which is actively seeking signatures from tech founders, engineers, and investors, centers on the DoW's unprecedented decision to designate Anthropic a "supply chain risk" after the company declined to accept changes to a government contract. This label effectively blacklists Anthropic, prohibiting any U.S. military contractor or partner from conducting commercial activity with the AI lab. The signatories argue this move dangerously conflates a domestic commercial dispute with national security threats typically associated with foreign adversaries, undermining the principles of free enterprise and contract law that underpin American technological leadership.

The letter's core contention is that the government's action establishes a perilous precedent, signaling to all technology companies that they must accept any government contract terms or face severe retaliation. This, the authors state, is antithetical to U.S. national security interests, which are best served by a competitive, innovative, and legally secure private sector. The call to action is twofold: first, for the Department of War to withdraw the supply chain risk designation and resolve the dispute through normal commercial channels; and second, for Congress to examine whether the use of such extraordinary authorities against a domestic AI company is appropriate. The letter represents a significant mobilization of the tech industry to defend commercial norms against what it perceives as governmental overreach in the strategically critical field of artificial intelligence.