900 Tech Workers Sign Letter Defending Anthropic

A rapidly growing coalition of tech industry workers has taken the extraordinary step of publicly challenging the U.S. Department of Defense, with nearly 900 signatories from companies including Google, OpenAI, IBM, Salesforce, Slack, and Cursor demanding that the Pentagon reverse its designation of Anthropic as a supply-chain risk. The open letter, which grew from a few hundred signatures on Friday to nearly 900 by Monday, represents one of the largest organized tech worker responses to a government action targeting an AI company.

What the Letter Demands

The letter urges both the Department of Defense and Congress to withdraw the supply-chain risk label — a designation normally reserved for foreign adversaries like Huawei or Kaspersky — and instead resolve the dispute through normal contractual channels. The signatories argue that blacklisting an American AI company for refusing to accept certain contract terms sets a dangerous precedent for the entire technology industry.

"This situation sets a dangerous precedent. 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 letter further argued that the United States' AI leadership depends on maintaining free enterprise principles. Undermining those principles to punish one company, the signatories wrote, is "short-sighted and antithetical to our national security interests."

The Pentagon-Anthropic Dispute

The controversy traces back to Anthropic's contract negotiations with the Department of Defense. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei drew two firm red lines: the company's AI technology would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or to power autonomous weapons capable of targeting and firing without human oversight. When Anthropic declined to modify these terms, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth escalated the dispute by designating the company a supply-chain risk — effectively blacklisting it from all federal contracts and any company doing business with the Pentagon.

The designation triggered a six-month transition period during which federal agencies must stop using Anthropic's Claude AI models. Several defense technology contractors have already begun migrating away from Claude, with CNBC reporting that multiple defense tech firms dropped the platform within days of the announcement.

Broad Industry Support

The letter's signatory list spans a striking cross-section of the tech industry. Notably, it includes employees from OpenAI — Anthropic's primary competitor — alongside workers from enterprise giants like IBM and Salesforce. Venture capital firms including Salesforce Ventures also signed on, signaling concern that the precedent could chill investment in AI startups that maintain ethical boundaries on government use.

In parallel, a separate group of former military leaders and defense policy experts sent their own letter to Congress defending Anthropic's position. They argued that the supply-chain risk designation was being misused as a retaliatory tool and called on lawmakers to intervene. Private sector executives and former Pentagon officials urged Congress to investigate whether the designation process was followed properly.

"We Will Not Be Divided"

A second open letter, titled "We Will Not Be Divided," circulated among Google and OpenAI employees calling for clearer limits on how AI companies work with the military. This letter attracted close to 100 signatories from OpenAI and nearly 800 from Google, reflecting deep concern within the companies most directly involved in government AI contracts. The letter calls for transparent ethical guidelines governing military AI use and rejects the framing that AI companies must choose between cooperating unconditionally with defense agencies or facing punitive action.

Government Response

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr weighed in publicly, stating that Anthropic "made a mistake" in its negotiations with the Pentagon and should "correct course." However, defense experts and former military officials pushed back, arguing that the government's response was disproportionate and could damage America's technology ecosystem. The debate has escalated into a broader question about the relationship between Silicon Valley and Washington in the age of AI.

What This Means for Tech Workers

The open letter campaign signals a maturing of tech worker activism around AI ethics. Unlike earlier protests focused on internal company policies, this campaign targets government action — suggesting that AI ethics has evolved from a corporate concern into a broader political and policy issue. For engineers and technologists navigating career decisions, the Anthropic situation highlights how the intersection of AI, ethics, and national security is creating new professional considerations that extend well beyond technical skills. InterviewAlly helps tech professionals prepare for the nuanced discussions increasingly common in interviews at AI-forward companies.