Anthropic Blocks Chinese-Owned Firms from US AI Access

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Anthropic announced it is restricting access to its AI services for Chinese-operated companies and organizations, citing concerns over legal and security issues. The US-based startup, supported by Amazon and renowned for its Claude chatbot, emphasizes its focus on AI safety and responsible development. Already, entities in China, along with those in Russia, North Korea, and Iran, are unable to utilize Anthropic’s commercial offerings. This move aligns with restrictions faced by US competitors like OpenAI, whose ChatGPT and similar products are also inaccessible in China, prompting Chinese firms such as Alibaba and Baidu to accelerate the creation of indigenous AI models.

In a statement released Friday, Anthropic detailed an update to its terms of service, indicating that despite existing restrictions, some entities continue to access its services through subsidiaries in other countries. The new policy explicitly bans companies or organizations under ownership structures controlled by jurisdictions where Anthropic’s products are prohibited, including China, regardless of their actual operational base. The company, valued at $183 billion, estimates that more than half of affected entities are owned, directly or indirectly, by firms in unsupported regions.

An executive from Anthropic informed the Financial Times that this change could potentially impact the company’s revenues by a few hundred million dollars. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, the company has rapidly grown, announcing a recent fundraising round totaling $13 billion and claiming over 300,000 business clients. The number of accounts generating more than $100,000 annually has nearly septupled within a year, according to Anthemic’s Tuesday report.

While some Chinese users access US AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude via VPN services, the narrative of the US leading in AI innovation has been challenged this year by Chinese startups such as DeepSeek, which unveiled a competitive chatbot at a fraction of US costs.