Trump drops Anthropic national security label after 1-week reversal

President Donald Trump told Axios he no longer views Anthropic as a national security threat, reversing a stance he held last week.

The reversal removes a regulatory cloud over Anthropic that had threatened to restrict access to its latest AI models by foreign nationals, reshaping the competitive outlook for one of the best-funded AI startups.

"I might have viewed them as a national security threat last week, but I no longer do," Trump told The Axios Show in an interview published Friday.

The about-face follows Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's directive barring foreign nationals from using Anthropic's newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, over unspecified security concerns. Anthropic took both models offline while disputing the government's rationale, the company said.

The shift could ease investor concerns about regulatory overhang on Anthropic, which has raised more than $14 billion from backers including Google and Amazon. French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the G7 summit in Evian, called the original restriction "a bad thing" and "strictly nationalist," highlighting the diplomatic tension it created.

The Commerce Department's directive marked one of the most aggressive uses of national security authority over AI since the technology's rapid adoption. Anthropic, which has built a reputation as a safety-first AI developer, said it did not believe the concerns warranted the government's action but complied to avoid legal escalation.

Trump did not specify what changed his assessment. The president's shifting stance introduces uncertainty about the administration's broader approach to AI regulation, which has oscillated between promoting US leadership and imposing security restrictions on key players.

For investors, the reversal removes a near-term risk that Anthropic's models would face prolonged access restrictions, potentially slowing adoption and revenue growth. Any curb on its ability to deploy models globally would have dented its competitive position against rivals such as OpenAI and Google, which face fewer regulatory entanglements.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.