Anthropic—Only frontier AI company to restrict sales to PRC-controlled companies, forgoing revenue
Anthropic is the only frontier AI company to restrict selling AI services to PRC-controlled companies, forgoing significant short-term revenue. At Davos 2026, Amodei likened U.S. allowing Nvidia to sell advanced chips to China as 'selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Safety | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Authoritarian Compliance | -against | primary | +1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.443 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Anthropic implemented sweeping restrictions blocking PRC-controlled entities from Claude AI services worldwide
On September 5, 2025, Anthropic announced it is the only frontier AI company to restrict selling AI services to PRC-controlled companies, blocking entities where ownership structures subject them to control from China (>50% owned). The policy aims to prevent authoritarian nations from leveraging advanced AI for military and intelligence purposes. An unnamed Anthropic executive indicated the financial impact would be in the 'low hundreds of millions of dollars' in global revenue. At Davos 2026, CEO Amodei likened U.S. allowing Nvidia to sell advanced chips to China as 'a bit like selling nuclear weapons to North Korea.'