Anthropic‘s annualized revenue crossed $19 billion this week, Bloomberg reported Wednesday — more than double the $9 billion it posted at the end of 2025 and well above the roughly $14 billion it recorded just weeks ago. The jump comes even as the White House moves to cut the company off from the US government entirely.
Claude Code, the company’s AI coding tool, drove much of the growth, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity.
The conflict with the Trump administration came to a head on February 27, when President Trump ordered every federal agency to immediately cease using Anthropic’s technology, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated the company a supply-chain risk to national security — a classification historically reserved for foreign adversaries such as China’s Huawei, never before publicly applied to an American company.
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The dispute centers on two red lines Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to cross: allowing Claude to fully power autonomous weapons systems and enabling mass domestic surveillance of Americans. After months of failed negotiations, Amodei said the company could not “in good conscience” accept the Pentagon’s demand that military contractors be able to use Claude for “all lawful purposes” without restriction.
Read: Anthropic CEO Says Pentagon Threats ‘Do Not Change Our Position’ as Deadline Looms
Trump responded on Truth Social, warning that Anthropic should “get their act together” or face “the Full Power of the Presidency” with “major civil and criminal consequences to follow.”
Read: The Pentagon Banned Anthropic — Then Gave OpenAI the Same Deal
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The Pentagon cancelled its contract with Anthropic — valued at up to $200 million — and gave agencies a six-month wind-down period. Claude had been the only AI model approved and onboarded for use on the military’s classified networks, most recently deployed during the US intervention in Iran — after Trump’s ban.
Hours after the White House announcement, OpenAI moved to fill the void. TechCrunch reported that CEO Sam Altman struck a deal with the Pentagon that preserved the same prohibitions on autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance Anthropic had fought for — raising immediate questions about why the government accepted those terms from OpenAI but not Anthropic.
The tech industry reacted swiftly. The Information Technology Industry Council, whose members include Nvidia, Google, and Anthropic itself, sent a letter to Hegseth on Wednesday warning that using the supply-chain risk designation as a procurement tool sets a dangerous precedent.
The letter cited the Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Act’s procedural protections, which require notice and an opportunity to respond before any such designation takes effect. Sen. Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the move raised serious concerns about whether national security decisions were being driven by “careful analysis or political considerations.”
Dean Ball, a former White House adviser and a primary author of the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, called the Pentagon’s action “attempted corporate murder.”
Anthropic said it will challenge the designation in court, arguing Hegseth lacks the statutory authority to extend it beyond Pentagon contracts. The company’s main app climbed to the top of Apple’s download charts in the days following the announcement.
As of Thursday, however, the standoff shows signs of softening. Bloomberg reported that Amodei resumed direct discussions with the Pentagon, raising the possibility of a resolution.
At the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, Amodei told investors the company is talking to the Defense Department “to try to de-escalate the situation and come to some agreement that works for us and works for them,” adding that the two sides “have much more in common than we have differences.”
Whether talks hold is an open question. Axios reported that a leaked internal memo from Amodei complicated matters — in it, he reportedly told staff that Trump disliked Anthropic for not giving him “dictator-style praise” and described OpenAI’s Pentagon deal as “safety theater.”
White House officials told Axios the remarks could derail any agreement. A source familiar with the negotiations told the outlet the two sides had nonetheless been making progress over the past several days, and that the memo’s ultimate impact on talks remained unclear.
Information for this story was found via Bloomberg, Axios, and the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
