Trump admin allows Anthropic to release Mythos AI model to some companies, government agencies

The U.S. government on Friday granted Anthropic permission to release its Mythos 5 model to a group of roughly 100 companies and federal agencies, CNBC has confirmed.

The decision, detailed by the Commerce Department in a letter to Anthropic, marks a major step forward in the negotiations between the Trump administration and the artificial intelligence company, which have been engaged in a two-week standoff over its latest models: Fable 5 and Mythos 5.

"I have determined that appropriate safeguards are in place to permit certain trusted partners to access the Claude Mythos 5 Model," U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote in the letter, which was viewed by CNBC.

The letter, addressed to Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown, did not grant Anthropic approval to restore access to Fable 5. Brown has reportedly taken the lead in negotiations with the Trump administration, replacing Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei in that role.

Anthropic said earlier this month that it disabled access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models to comply with an export control directive from the government that cited "national security authorities." The company said it was instructed to suspend all access "by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees."

The unexpected move landed just days after Anthropic announced the models, which the company touted as state-of-the-art across a number of different industry benchmarks. Fable 5, in particular, marked the first time that Anthropic released such an advanced offering to the public, thanks to new safeguards that block responses in specific high-risk areas.

Earlier on Friday, Anthropic rival OpenAI announced three new AI models and said it's complying with the U.S. government's request to initially limit the rollout to a "small group of trusted partners."

OpenAI said in a blog post that it "believes in broad access" and is working to make the models — GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna — generally available in the coming weeks. OpenAI said it previewed the models' capabilities and shared its plans with the government ahead of Friday's launch.

Of the two companies, Anthropic has had a harder time dealing with the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the Department of Defense clashed with the company over disagreements regarding use of its models.

After negotiations between the two sides collapsed, the DOD declared Anthropic a supply chain risk, meaning the company purportedly threatens U.S. national security. The label has historically been reserved for foreign adversaries, and requires defense contractors to certify that they will not use Anthropic's Claude models in their work with the military.

Anthropic sued the Trump administration in an effort to reverse its blacklisting, and litigation is still ongoing.

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