latest news in Defense Contracting

OpenAI Secures Defense Partnership Immediately Following Anthropic’s Federal Blacklisting

Washington D.C., Saturday, 28 February 2026.
OpenAI finalized a Pentagon agreement including ethical safeguards mere hours after the administration banned Anthropic for demanding similar restrictions on AI use in autonomous warfare.

Anthropic Rejects Pentagon Ultimatum to Remove AI Ethical Safeguards

San Francisco, Saturday, 28 February 2026.
As of Saturday, February 28, 2026, the standoff between Anthropic and the Department of Defense has reached a critical impasse. CEO Dario Amodei has formally refused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ultimatum to remove ethical safeguards from the Claude AI model, specifically regarding mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry. Despite facing threats of contract termination and a “supply chain risk” designation, Anthropic remains the sole major AI holdout, whereas competitors like xAI have aligned with military demands. Most notably, the Pentagon has threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to compel compliance—a move legal experts and Amodei describe as paradoxically labeling the technology a national security risk while simultaneously deeming it essential for military operations.