TechnologyAIPrint articleMay 5, 2026 – 9.40amWhen Anthropic refused the Pentagon’s demand for unrestricted military use of its AI models in February 2026 – and was promptly designated a “supply chain risk to national security” – it looked like an unusually principled stance for a company at this scale. A $US380 billion ($530 billion) business telling the US military no, and wearing the consequences.It is, in fact, a well-trodden pathway in tech. Uber launched illegally in Australia in 2012, accepting criminal charges and regulatory hostility as the cost of building a consumer base large enough to force legislative change. Facebook ignored privacy regulators across multiple jurisdictions for a decade, calculating that a big enough user base would eventually compel governments to accommodate the platform rather than exclude it.Loading...SaveLog in or Subscribe to save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? LoginLicense articleFollow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.Find out moreRead MoreAIOpinionAnthropicOpenAIFacebookUberFetching latest articles