Anthropic’s victory lap

After the Pentagon labeled Anthropic a supply-chain risk, the AI startup sued — and then surged past $30 billion in revenue

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images

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When the Pentagon declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk earlier this year, the designation was meant to hurt. The label, typically reserved for adversarial foreign companies, was a pointed message from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after Anthropic refused to let the military use its AI models for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance. Anthropic called the move "legally unsound" and sued.

What followed has been less a corporate crisis than a coming-out party.

In the months since the standoff began, Anthropic says its annualized revenue has grown from roughly $9 billion at the end of 2025 to more than $30 billion today, and paid consumer subscriptions have more than doubled. The Claude app briefly topped Apple $AAPL's download charts. 

The legal fight has temporarily produced a split decision — one court blocked the government from enforcing a ban on Claude, while a federal appeals court allowed the Pentagon's blacklisting to stand while litigation plays........

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