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Even more extreme, that might mean they won't be able to offer Claude to non-US companies at all.
by hobom 7mo ago
Even more extreme, that might mean they won't be able to offer Claude to non-US companies at all.
- nl 7mo agoI don't see how you get that reading. Anthropic is clearly allowed to sell Claude to companies not doing business with the US Military. If anything that's more likely to be non-US companies.
- throw310822 7mo agoBecause Anthropic sells Claude through other companies that in turn do business both with Anthropic and the government. These intermediaries, large cloud companies, can't offer Claude anymore if they want to keep the government as a customer.
- stdgy 7mo agoThe government is faaaaaaaaaaaar too invested in Azure and AWS for Microsoft or Amazon to give even half a shit. The DOD has no where else to go and the companies know it. They'll sit on their hands until the legal maneuvers play out, which will take longer than this administration will be in office.
- throw310822 7mo agoThis is also true, unless the government can force them to drop Anthropic on the basis that the alternative- the government dropping them- is unworkable.
- SpicyLemonZest 7mo agoOr Pete Hegseth will threaten to do the same to them unless they comply, and they will demonstrate the same inexcusable cowardice the American business class has consistently demonstrated this past year. Hope I'm wrong and this has finally woken them up!
- nickysielicki 7mo agoYou expect hyperscalers to play chicken with the DoD? The courts have historically been pretty consistent about giving the DoD whatever the fuck they want, going back to WW2 and even longer for the predecessors of the DoD. I agree that the next administration might reverse it, but the thing is, the government will stay irrational longer than Anthropic will remain solvent. The US government told every American company to stop doing business with Huawei and they all did it overnight, even when it cost them billions. TSMC stopped fabricating for them, Google pulled Android licensing… The machinery of sanctions compliance is extremely well-oiled and companies fold instantly because the outcome of noncompliance is literally getting thrown in prison.
- kccqzy 7mo agoSo is it actually sanctions? I believe Huawei was on the entities list. Such a list comes from the fact that the government can require export licensing. Since Anthropic is in the U.S., I do not believe it’s the same thing as Huawei.
- nickysielicki 7mo agoHuawei did eventually end up on the entities list, but there was a gap between when it was initially announced and when it became law, and the divestment from contractors started immediately overnight.
- nl 7mo agoBut thay doesn't imply they can't do business with say the German Federal Government for example?
- cogman10 7mo agoIIRC, the supply chain risk designation is sticky which is why it tends to ultimately mean "nobody can work with this". Amazon using claude means a DoD company can't use Amazon. Every business that touches claude gets tainted. It's a bit like how the US Cuba sanctions worked and why they effectively isolated Cuba from everything.
- nl 7mo agoYes I got that. But doesn't that mean that non-US customers would be the major customer segment still open to Anthropic in that scenario? I still don't see any way to read that as saying they could only do business with US customers, whether they give in or not?
- hobom 7mo agoSorry, the "they" referred to the hyperscalers