We write as founders, engineers, investors, and executives in the American technology industry. We strongly believe the federal government should not retaliate against a private company for declining to accept changes to a contract.
When two parties cannot agree on terms, the normal course is to part ways and work with a competitor. Instead, the DoW has threatened to designate Anthropic a “supply chain risk” (a label normally reserved for foreign adversaries) and invoke the Defense Production Act to compel cooperation. A senior Pentagon official told reporters the goal is to “make sure they pay a price.”
Punishing an American company for declining to accept changes to a contract sends a clear message to every technology company in America: accept whatever terms the government demands, or face retaliation. The United States is winning the AI competition because of its commitment to free enterprise and the rule of law; undermining that commitment to punish one company is short-sighted and antithetical to our national security interests.
We urge the DoW to resolve this dispute through normal commercial channels, and we urge Congress to examine whether the use of these extraordinary authorities against an American technology company is appropriate.
Respectfully,