London Mayor Sadiq Khan has extended an open invitation to San Francisco-based AI company Anthropic to expand its operations in the UK capital, stepping into the middle of a growing dispute between the firm and the Trump administration.
In a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Khan criticized what he described as retaliatory action by the U.S. government after the company refused to grant defense agencies unrestricted access to its artificial intelligence tools. The Pentagon recently designated Anthropic a supply chain risk—a move that followed Amodei’s resistance to allowing its Claude model to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous military targeting.
“It is extremely concerning to see this kind of behaviour, which is a clear attempt to intimidate and punish Anthropic for refusing to remove ethical safeguards,” Khan wrote.
Anthropic has indicated it plans to challenge the designation in court.
When asked about the mayor’s overture, a White House spokesperson pushed back firmly. “As President Trump said, we will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our United States Military fights wars,” the spokesperson told the BBC.
The Pentagon has maintained that military access to technology must remain unrestricted “for all lawful purposes” and has stressed that the feared applications—mass surveillance and autonomous targeting—would violate U.S. law and are not under consideration.
Last week, President Trump announced he would direct every federal agency to immediately halt the use of Anthropic’s technology.
Khan, however, praised the company’s stance. “I applaud your steadfastness in the face of such pressure,” he wrote, adding that London “could provide an even more significant location and platform for the future of Anthropic.” He also invited Amodei to discuss ways the city could support the company’s expansion.
The letter positions London as a potential alternative for Anthropic as its relationship with the U.S. government continues to sour. The company had been in discussions with the Department of Defense, but those talks have now collapsed.
“I want to end all speculation: there is no active [Department of War] negotiation with [Anthropic],” Emil Michael, Under Secretary of Defense, wrote on X Thursday, using the secondary name Trump has given to the Defense Department.
The Pentagon’s supply chain risk designation marks the first time a U.S. company has been labeled as such, effectively barring the government from using Anthropic’s tools due to security concerns.
Internally, some at Anthropic had worried the move could ripple out and affect business with commercial partners who also work with the U.S. government. So far, those concerns have not materialized. On Thursday, tech giant Microsoft confirmed it would continue embedding Anthropic’s technology in its products for clients, with a specific exception carved out for the Department of Defense.
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