Palantir’s Maven Smart Systems – a software platform that supplies militaries with intelligence analysis and weapons targeting – uses multiple prompts and workflows that were built using Anthropic’s Claude code, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Learn about the latest breakthroughs in AI and tech with the Reuters Artificial Intelligencer newsletter.
Palantir, which holds Maven-related contracts with the Defense Department and other U.S. national security agencies that have a potential value of more than $1 billion, will have to replace Claude with another AI model and rebuild parts of its software, one of the sources said. Reuters could not determine how long this process would take.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has suggested the change must be immediate, stating last week: “Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity” with Anthropic.
The Pentagon, Anthropic and Palantir declined to comment.
Anthropic’s role inside Maven underscores the messy and potentially costly challenge facing the Pentagon, other government agencies and U.S. companies as they face unwinding ties with a pivotal AI supplier that has become deeply embedded across public and private‑sector systems.
Palantir’s software has become deeply embedded in the Pentagon’s drive to integrate artificial intelligence into military operations, a position that has elevated the company from a niche intelligence contractor into a core supplier for U.S. defense modernization efforts and helped propel its market value to around $350 billion.
Reporting by David Jeans in New York and Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Joe Brock and Matthew Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
David Jeans is a space and defense correspondent for Reuters, based in New York. He covers the intersection of weapons, technology and national security, with a focus on the rise of venture-backed military startups and the Pentagon’s evolving relationship with Silicon Valley. Previously, he covered defense tech for Forbes. He’s also the co-author of WONDER BOY: Tony Hsieh, Zappos and the Myth of Happiness in Silicon Valley, named a Financial Times Best Business Book.
Mike Stone is a Reuters reporter covering the U.S. arms trade and defense industry. Most recently Mike has been focused on the Golden Dome missile defense shield. Mike also spends a lot of his time writing on Ukraine and how industry has adapted, or faltered as it supports that conflict. Mike, a New Yorker, has extensively covered how the U.S. has supplied Ukraine with weapons, the cadence, decisions and milestones that have had battlefield impacts. Before his time in Washington Mike’s coverage focused on mergers and acquisitions for oil and gas companies, financial institutions, defense companies, consumer product makers, retailers, real estate giants, and telecommunications companies.