Pentagon’s Biggest Champion of Blacklisting Anthropic Has a Few Million Reasons for His Stance

A major conflict of interest is at the center of the Pentagon's campaign to blacklist AI firm Anthropic. Emil Michael, the Department of Defense's Chief Technology Officer and a key architect of the effort, holds between $2 million and $10 million in stock and a board seat at Perplexity AI—a direct Anthropic competitor. While publicly citing ethical concerns over Anthropic's refusal to allow its models for domestic surveillance or autonomous weapons, Michael's financial stake in a rival firm suggests ulterior motives, as revealed in a financial disclosure spotted by The Lever.

Despite the Pentagon's public stance designating Anthropic as a 'supply chain risk,' a federal judge overseeing Anthropic's lawsuit described the move as 'an attempt to cripple' the company. The ban forced Anthropic to forfeit a major government contract, which was subsequently awarded to OpenAI—another company linked to Michael through his advisory role at Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity. Ironically, the DoD reportedly continues to use Anthropic's Claude model for military operations, including in early attacks on Iran, undermining its own security warnings.