The U.S. government has issued an export‑control order requiring Anthropic to suspend access to its most capable AI models — Fable 5 and Mythos 5 — for all foreign governments, companies and citizens. Anthropic said it will block those models for all of its users after receiving the instruction.
The administration did not publicly specify the exact national security concerns underlying the directive. According to reporting by Axios, the Commerce Department decided to act after another company claimed it could breach the Mythos model, which the government viewed as a national security risk.
Kirsten Davies, the Pentagon’s chief information officer, commented that some considerations, such as national security, outweigh revenue cycles or commercial timing.
The timing of the order was notable because relations between Trump administration officials and Anthropic — which has been preparing for a public offering — appeared to have eased recently. Tensions flared earlier when Anthropic refused a U.S. military request to allow its AI models to be used for domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons systems. In response, the Pentagon formally placed Anthropic on a blacklist; that sanction is scheduled to take effect later this year.
Anthropic has stated that the Friday government measure was unjustified and did not follow principles of fair, fact‑based regulation. The company previously announced it will pursue legal action over the sanctions.
This report is based on coverage by Axios and Reuters; the government has not disclosed detailed public evidence about the alleged national security threats.
