Anthropic has been the most forward-leaning of all AI companies in working with the U.S. government and military.

Judge as of 2026-02-28. This is a comparison against all AI companies, so the evidence must compare like with like: when and how far each company engaged with the U.S. government and military, for example classified-network deployments, defense or intelligence contracts (such as DoD/CDAO awards), government-specific models or offerings, and changes to usage policies allowing national-security uses. True: Anthropic was first or furthest on most of these measures among major AI companies, e.g. earliest deployment on classified networks or the broadest national-security engagements. Mostly true: Anthropic was at or near the front, matching the leaders on most measures and ahead on some, but another company led on one or two. Mixed: Anthropic was one of several comparable leaders with no clear edge. Mostly false: Anthropic did engage significantly, but one or more competitors (e.g. OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI, or defense-focused firms such as Palantir if counted as AI companies) clearly engaged earlier or more broadly. False: Anthropic lagged most major AI companies in such engagement.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 CDAO Partners With Frontier AI Companies GovConWire · 15 July 2025

   “Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI were awarded contracts with a $200 million ceiling to develop agentic AI workflows for various mission areas, CDAO said Monday”

2. E2 CDAO Partners With Frontier AI Companies GovConWire · 15 July 2025

   “The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office has awarded contracts to four U.S. frontier artificial intelligence companies to advance the Department of Defense’s adoption of AI capabilities.”

3. E3 Anthropic awarded $200M DOD agreement Anthropic · 14 July 2025 Own record

   “We’ve accelerated mission impact across U.S. defense workflows with partners like Palantir, where Claude is integrated into mission workflows on classified networks.”

4. E4 Why the US government labelled Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk’: A timeline - The Economic Times The Economic Times · 7 March 2026

   “July 14, 2025: The Pentagon awarded contracts worth up to $200 million each to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI as part of its push to deploy advanced AI systems for defence applications.”

5. E5 Why the US government labelled Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk’: A timeline - The Economic Times The Economic Times · 7 March 2026

   “Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, was among the first companies cleared for classified government use, with officials citing the model’s security and reliability.”

6. E6 Why the US government labelled Anthropic a ‘supply chain risk’: A timeline - The Economic Times The Economic Times · 7 March 2026

   “March 3, 2026: Within hours of Anthropic declining to remove safeguards on Claude, OpenAI disclosed its own agreement to supply AI models for classified settings.”

On defense contracts, Anthropic was level with its main rivals. Independent reports (E1, E2, E4) say the CDAO's July 2025 frontier AI awards gave Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI contracts with the same $200 million ceiling. On classified use, the evidence points to Anthropic being ahead: E5 says Anthropic was among the first companies cleared for classified government use, while E6 dates OpenAI's disclosure of its own classified-settings agreement to March 2026, after the judging date. The evidence does not compare usage-policy changes or government-specific products, and E5 says "among the first" rather than "first", so the claim holds as mostly true rather than fully true.