The AI industry is closing ranks. Hours after Anthropic filed its lawsuit against the Department of Defense on Monday, nearly 40 employees from OpenAI and Google - including Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist and Gemini lead - filed an amicus brief supporting the challenge. The rare cross-company show of solidarity signals deep concern over the Trump administration's decision to label Anthropic a supply chain risk, a designation typically reserved for foreign adversaries.
Anthropic just got backup from an unlikely alliance. The AI safety company filed its lawsuit against the Department of Defense on Monday morning, challenging its designation as a supply chain risk. By evening, nearly 40 researchers from OpenAI and Google had submitted an amicus brief in federal court supporting their competitor's legal fight.
The move is extraordinary. Jeff Dean, Google's chief scientist who leads the company's Gemini AI efforts, put his name on the brief alongside engineers and researchers who compete directly with Anthropic's Claude chatbot. This isn't the typical Silicon Valley rivalry - it's a coordinated response to what the brief describes as the administration's "unprecedented" application of supply chain restrictions to a domestic AI company.
The Trump administration designated Anthropic as a supply chain risk in late February, effectively restricting government agencies and contractors from using the company's AI systems. That designation has historically been reserved for foreign companies like Huawei or ZTE that officials believe pose national security threats. Applying it to a San Francisco-based company backed by Google and founded by former OpenAI executives represents a dramatic shift in how the Pentagon approaches AI governance.
According to The Verge's initial reporting, Anthropic's lawsuit argues the designation was arbitrary and violated administrative procedures. But the amicus brief from OpenAI and Google employees goes further, laying out technical concerns about how such designations could affect AI development across the industry.
