In late February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon and delivered an ultimatum: abandon the company's prohibitions on enabling fully autonomous weapons and domestic mass surveillance by 5:01 PM that Friday, or face consequences. The day before the deadline, Amodei declined. Hegseth then designated Anthropic a "supply-chain risk" - a devastating blacklist historically reserved for companies with ties to foreign adversaries, such as Huawei.
Sam Altman was already in motion, "Hvylya" reports, citing a New Yorker investigation. Emil Michael, the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, had contacted him at least two days earlier as he sought replacements. "I needed to hurry and find alternatives," Michael recalled. "I called Sam, and he was willing to jump. I think he's a patriot." Altman asked Michael: "What can I do for the country?"
OpenAI lacked the security accreditation required for the classified systems where Anthropic's technology was embedded. But a $50 billion deal announced that Friday morning integrated OpenAI's technology into Amazon Web Services - a key part of the Pentagon's digital infrastructure. That night, Altman announced on X that the US military would now be using OpenAI's models. The new funding round announced the same day increased OpenAI's valuation by $110 billion.
The maneuver came despite Altman writing in an internal memo that the dispute was "an issue for the whole industry" and claiming OpenAI shared Anthropic's ethical boundaries. Hundreds of employees at OpenAI and Google had signed an open letter defending Anthropic. But many ChatGPT users deleted the app in response, and at least two senior employees departed - one for Anthropic. At a staff meeting, Altman chastised those who raised concerns: "So maybe you think the Iran strike was good and the Venezuela invasion was bad. You don't get to weigh in on that."
The episode illustrated a broader pattern. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI executives who left over safety concerns, had been the only AI contractor used in the Pentagon's most classified settings. Its "responsible scaling policy" prohibited enabling fully autonomous weapons or domestic mass surveillance. When it held that line, Altman seized the opening. Several OpenAI executives have since floated Fidji Simo, the company's CEO for AGI Deployment, as a potential successor. Simo herself has privately said she believes Altman may eventually step down.
"Hvylya" earlier reported on Rubio denying US pressure on Ukraine to cede territory for protection.