Tech
New court filing reveals Pentagon told Anthropic the two sides were nearly aligned — a week after Trump declared the relationship kaput
Anthropic submitted two sworn declarations to a California federal court late Friday afternoon, pushing back on the Pentagon’s assertion that the AI company poses an “unacceptable risk to national security” and arguing that the government’s case relies on technical misunderstandings and claims that were never actually raised during the months of negotiations that preceded the dispute.
The declarations were filed alongside Anthropic’s reply brief in its lawsuit against the Department of Defense and come ahead of a hearing this coming Tuesday, March 24, before Judge Rita Lin in San Francisco.
The dispute traces back to late February, when President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth publicly declared they were cutting ties with Anthropic after the company refused to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology.
The two people who submitted the declarations are Sarah Heck, Anthropic’s Head of Policy, and Thiyagu Ramasamy, the company’s Head of Public Sector.
Heck is a former National Security Council official who worked at the White House under the Obama administration before moving to Stripe and then Anthropic, where she runs the company’s government relationships and policy work. She was personally present at the February 24 meeting where CEO Dario Amodei sat down with Defense Secretary Hegseth and the Pentagon’s Under Secretary Emil Michael.
In her declaration, Heck calls out what she describes as a central falsehood in the government’s filings: that Anthropic demanded some kind of approval role over military operations. That claim, she says, simply isn’t true. “At no time during Anthropic’s negotiations with the Department did I or any other Anthropic employee state that the company wanted that kind of role,” she wrote.
She also claims that the Pentagon’s concern about Anthropic potentially disabling or altering its technology mid-operation was never raised during negotiations. Instead, she says, it appeared for the first time in the government’s court filings, which gave Anthropic no opportunity to respond.
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Another detail in Heck’s declaration sure to draw attention is that on March 4 — the day after the Pentagon formally finalized its supply-chain risk designation against Anthropic — Under Secretary Michael emailed Amodei to say the two sides were “very close” on the two issues the government now cites as evidence that Anthropic is a national security threat: its positions on autonomous weapons and mass surveillance of Americans.
The email, which Heck attaches as an exhibit to her declaration, is worth reading alongside what Michael said publicly in the days afterward. On March 5, Amodei published a statement saying the company had been having “productive conversations” with the Pentagon. The day after that, Michael posted on X that “there is no active Department of War negotiation with Anthropic.” A week after that, he told CNBC there was “no chance” of renewed talks.
Heck’s point appears to be: If Anthropic’s stance on those two issues is what makes it a national security threat, why was the Pentagon’s own official saying the two sides were nearly aligned on exactly those issues right after the designation was finalized? (She stops short of saying the government used the designation as a bargaining chip, but the timeline she lays out leaves the question hanging.)
Ramasamy brings a different kind of expertise to the case. Before joining Anthropic in 2025, he spent six years at Amazon Web Services managing AI deployments for government customers, including classified environments. At Anthropic, he’s credited with building the team that brought its Claude models into national security and defense settings, including the $200 million contract with the Pentagon announced last summer.
His declaration takes on the government’s claim that Anthropic could theoretically interfere with military operations by disabling the technology or otherwise altering how it behaves, which Ramasamy says isn’t technically possible. Per his telling, once Claude is deployed inside a government-secured, “air-gapped” system operated by a third-party contractor, Anthropic has no access to it; there is no remote kill switch, no backdoor, and no mechanism to push unauthorized updates. Any kind of “operational veto” is a fiction, he suggests, explaining that a change to the model would require the Pentagon’s explicit approval and action to install.
Anthropic, he says, can’t even see what government users are typing into the system, let alone extract that data.
Ramasamy also disputes the government’s claim that Anthropic’s hiring of foreign nationals makes the company a security risk. He notes that Anthropic employees have undergone U.S. government security clearance vetting — the same background check process required for access to classified information — adding in his declaration that “to my knowledge,” Anthropic is the only AI company where cleared personnel actually built the AI models designed to run in classified environments.
Anthropic’s lawsuit argues that the supply-chain risk designation — the first ever applied to an American company — amounts to government retaliation for the company’s publicly stated views on AI safety, in violation of the First Amendment.
The government, in a 40-page filing earlier this week, rejected that framing entirely, saying that Anthropic’s refusal to allow all lawful military uses of its technology was a business decision, not protected speech, and that the designation was a straightforward national security call and not punishment for the company’s views.
Tech
Sam Altman-backed fusion startup Helion in talks to sell power to OpenAI
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is stepping down as board chair of the Helion — the fusion startup he backs — amid reported talks between the two companies.
The deal, which was reported by Axios, is in early stages, and it could guarantee OpenAI 12.5% of Helion’s production — five gigawatts by 2030 and 50 gigawatts by 2035. OpenAI partner Microsoft signed a similar deal with Helion in 2023 to buy power starting in 2028.
If the figures in Axios’ report prove to be accurate, it suggests that Helion expects to be able to rapidly scale production of its fusion power plant. The startup has said that each of its reactors will generate 50 megawatts of electricity, meaning it will need to build and install 800 reactors by 2030 and an additional 7,200 by 2035.
Helion wouldn’t confirm if talks with OpenAI were underway. A spokesman told TechCrunch the company has not announced any new customer agreements beyond those it already has with Microsoft and Nucor. However, the company did confirm to TechCrunch that Altman is leaving the board chair of Helion, suggesting that the two companies may eventually work together.
“Sam is stepping down from Helion’s Board of Directors after more than a decade. This decision enables Helion and OpenAI to partner on future opportunities to bring zero-carbon, safe electricity to the world,” David Kirtley, co-founder and CEO of the company, told TechCrunch in statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with him in this new capacity.”
Helion is racing to build its first commercial-scale reactor by that time. If the startup is successful, it would place it years ahead of the competition, which is mostly targeting early 2030s for commercial operations.
The startup raised $425 million last year from investors, including Altman as well as firms Mithril, Lightspeed, and SoftBank.
Most fusion startups are pursuing one of two approaches — harvesting heat from the fusion reactions and using a steam turbine to turn it into electricity. Helion is taking a different tack, developing a reactor design that would use magnets to convert fusion energy into electricity.
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Inside the hourglass-shaped reactor, fusion fuel is first turned into plasma at either end and then shot toward each other using magnetic fields. When they collide in the middle, another set of magnets compresses the merged plasma ball until fusion occurs. The reaction pushes back on the magnets, which can convert that energy directly into electricity.
Helion is currently operating its Polaris prototype in advance of its push to commercial power. In February, the company generated plasmas inside the reactor that hit 150 million degrees Celsius, almost to the 200 million degrees Celsius the company thinks will be required for commercial operations.
Though Altman has stepped down from his position as chair of Helion’s board and reportedly recused himself from the discussions, his fingerprints are all over the matchmaking.
Last year, Altman stepped down as board chair of Oklo, a small modular nuclear reactor startup that had merged with his acquisition company, AltC. The move was intended to allow Oklo to explore strategic partnerships with leading AI companies, including potentially with OpenAI,” Caroline Cochran, Oklo’s co-founder and chief operating officer, said in a statement given to CNBC at the time.
Update 1:30 pm ET: Added confirmation from Helion regarding Altman stepping down as board chair.
Tech
FBI says Iranian hackers are using Telegram to steal data in malware attacks
Iranian government hackers are using Telegram as a way to steal data from hacked dissidents, opposition groups, and journalists who oppose the regime around the world, according to an FBI alert published on Friday.
In the first stage of the attack, the hackers contact their targets and pretend to be a known contact or tech support, and are tricked into accepting a link to a malicious file masquerading as legitimate apps, such as Telegram and WhatsApp. Once the target installs the malware, the second stage of the attack connects the infected victim with Telegram bots that allow the hackers to remotely command and control the victim’s computer. This allows the hackers to gain remote control of victims’ devices to steal files, take screenshots, and record Zoom calls, according to the FBI.
Using Telegram as a way to remotely control a victim’s device is a common technique by hackers to hide malicious activity among legitimate network traffic, which makes it harder for cybersecurity defenders and anti-malware products to identify.
According to the FBI, the hackers responsible for these attacks are allegedly working for Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). The FBI said these attacks are an example of Iranian government hackers’ attempts to push the regime’s “geopolitical agenda.”
Contact Us
Do you have more information about Handala, or other Iran-linked hacking operations? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or by email.
In the alert, the FBI mentioned the pro-Iranian and pro-Palestinian fake hacktivist group Handala, although it’s not clear if the attacks referenced in the alert were carried out by this group.
Earlier this month, Handala claimed responsibility for an attack on medical tech giant Stryker, which resulted in wiping tens of thousands of employee devices.
In an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, Stryker said it is still recovering from the hack.
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Last week, the U.S. Justice Department accused Handala of being a front for Iran’s government, specifically the MOIS, and for being behind the Stryker hack. At the same time, the FBI took down and seized two websites linked to Handala, and two other sites linked to another Iranian hacktivist group called “Homeland Justice.” In the recent FBI alert, the bureau said the two groups are linked and controlled by the MOIS.
An FBI spokesperson said in an email that the bureau “has nothing additional to add.”
Telegram’s spokesperson Remi Vaughn said that the platform’s “moderators routinely remove any accounts found to be involved with malware.”
Updated to include the FBI’s and Telegram’s response.
Tech
Elizabeth Warren calls Pentagon’s decision to bar Anthropic ‘retaliation’
Anthropic is attracting an increasing number of supporters in its fight against the U.S. Department of Defense, which last month designated the AI lab as a supply-chain risk after it refused to make concessions on how its AI could be used by the military.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) equated the DOD’s decision with “retaliation,” arguing that the Pentagon could simply have terminated its contract with the AI lab, CNBC reports.
“I am particularly concerned that the DoD is trying to strong-arm American companies into providing the Department with the tools to spy on American citizens and deploy fully autonomous weapons without adequate safeguards,” Warren wrote, per the report, adding that the barring of Anthropic “appears to be retaliation.”
Warren’s words echo many other organizations that have spoken out against the Defense Department’s treatment of Anthropic. Several tech companies and employees — including from OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft — as well as legal rights groups, have filed amicus briefs in support of Anthropic and denouncing the designation, which is usually applied to foreign adversaries and not U.S. firms.
The dispute arose after Anthropic told the Pentagon that it did not want its AI systems to be used for mass surveillance of Americans and that the technology wasn’t ready for use in targeting or firing decisions of lethal autonomous weapons without human intervention. The Pentagon contested that a private company shouldn’t dictate how the military uses technology, and soon after designated the company as a “supply-chain risk.” The label requires any company or agency that does work with the Pentagon to certify that it doesn’t use the designated company’s products or services — effectively barring Anthropic from working with any company that also works with the U.S. government.
The letter from Warren comes a day before a hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday, when District Judge Rita Lin will decide whether to grant Anthropic a preliminary injunction that seeks to preserve the status quo while its case against the DOD is litigated.
While Anthropic is suing the DOD for infringing on its First Amendment rights and for punishing the company based on ideological grounds, the Defense Department has maintained that Anthropic’s refusal to allow all lawful military uses of its technology was a business decision, not protected speech, and that the designation was a straightforward national security call and not punishment for the company’s views.
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The AI lab last week submitted two declarations to the court that claim the government’s logic is flawed as they depend on technical misunderstandings as well as points of concern that were not raised during the company’s negotiations with the DOD.
Warren has also written to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, asking for details of the company’s agreement with the DOD, which came just a day after the Pentagon blacklisted Anthropic.
Anthropic and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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