Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE:LMT) has pledged to remove Anthropic‘s Claude AI tools from its operations after President Donald Trump imposed a federal agency-wide ban on the company, with a six-month phase-out period.

According to a Reuters report, Lockheed said, “We will follow the president’s and the Department of Defense’s direction,” adding it expects “minimal impacts” and does not depend on any single AI vendor “for any portion of our work.”

Notably, U.S. Central Command reportedly used Claude during the Iran air strike just hours after the ban was announced.

Legal Authority Questioned

Attorney Franklin Turner, an innovative business lawyer who resolves complex government contracts issues, told Reuters that firms are “already taking steps to cleanse their supply chains,” adding the threat has “already done significant harm to the company.”

According to the report, Attorney Jason Workmaster, whose practice focuses on government contracts-related litigation, called the Pentagon’s move “highly aggressive,” saying the Department of Defense would likely be found lacking authority if challenged.

The attorney said the Pentagon's main tool, the DOD Supply Chain Risk Authority, limits use to government contracts and does not completely restrict commercial activity.

Anthropic Vows Legal Fight as Claude Ban Triggers App Store Surge

Anthropic earlier said it would challenge the ban in court.

Dario Amodei, CEO of the California-based AI safety and research company, earlier said the company refused unrestricted Pentagon use over concerns about domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.

The ban also appeared to boost civilian demand, with Claude reaching the top of Apple’s App Store free chart the following day before service outages occurred.

University of Minnesota law professor Alan Rozenshtein told Reuters that capitalism and free markets depend on the rule of law, and that what's being proposed is the opposite of that.

Lockheed Market Standing

Lockheed Martin has a market capitalization of $153.65 billion, with a 52-week high of $692.00 and a 52-week low of $410.11.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) of LMT stands at 64.24.

With a strong Momentum in the 85th percentile, Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that LMT has a positive price trend across all time frames.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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