U.S. appeals court refuses to block Anthropic’s addition to Pentagon ‘blacklist’

A U.S. federal appeals court refused on Friday to block a Department of Defense order that blacklisted Anthropic from government contracts and deemed the artificial intelligence startup a national security risk.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit came in a lawsuit by Anthropic challenging its designation by the Pentagon as a national security supply chain risk, which the startup says has cost it billions of dollars in lost business and damaged its reputation ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering.

The designation has been blocked by a judge overseeing a separate legal challenge in federal court in California.