Microsoft, Google and Amazon say Anthropic Claude remains available to non-defense customers

Microsoft and Google confirmed to TechCrunch that companies and startups using Anthropic Claude through Microsoft and Google products don’t need to fear the model being snatched from their reach. AWS customers and partners can also continue to use Claude for non-defense related workloads.

Microsoft was the first big tech company to offer assurances that Anthropic’s models would remain available to its customers even though the Trump administration’s War Department — officially known as the Department of Defense — has escalated its dispute with Anthropic.

The Department of Defense officially designated a US artificial intelligence startup as a supply chain risk on Thursday after the AI ​​company refused to give it unfettered access to its technology for applications the company said its AI could not safely support, such as mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.

Supply chain risk classification is typically reserved for foreign liabilities. For Anthropic, the designation means the Pentagon won’t be able to use the company’s products once CLOUD is taken out of its systems. It also requires any company or agency working with the Pentagon to certify that it does not use Anthropic models either. Anthropic has vowed to fight the designation in court.

Microsoft sells a range of products, from Office to the cloud, to several federal agencies, including the Department of Defense. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company will continue to make Anthropic Models available within its own products and to Microsoft customers.

“Our lawyers have studied the classification and concluded that Anthropic products, including Claude, can remain available to our customers — other than the War Department — through platforms such as M365, GitHub, and Microsoft’s AI Foundry, and that we can continue to work with Anthropic on non-defense-related projects,” the spokesperson said in an email. CNBC first reported this comment.

Google, which sells cloud computing, artificial intelligence and productivity tools to federal agencies, confirmed that it will continue to make Cloud available to its customers.

A Google spokesperson said: “We understand that the decision does not prevent us from working with Anthropic on non-defense projects, and its products remain available through our platforms, such as Google Cloud.”

CNBC also reported that AWS customers and partners can continue to use Claude for non-defense workloads.

This reflects what Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in his statement in which he pledged to fight the label.

“As far as our customers are concerned, this obviously only applies to customers’ use of Claude As a direct part of “Contracts are with the War Department, and not all use of Claude is by customers with such contracts,” Amodei said, adding: “Even for War Department contractors, identifying supply chain risks does not (and cannot) limit Claude’s uses or business relationships with Anthropic if those are not related to their specific War Department contracts.”

Meanwhile, Claude’s consumption continued to grow after Anthropic refused to give in to management’s demands.