The U.S. government has allowed Anthropic to release its powerful Claude Mythos 5 AI model to selected “trusted partners,” easing a two-week confrontation between Washington and one of the world’s most valuable private technology companies.
The decision was laid out in a Commerce Department letter sent Friday to Anthropic and seen by Reuters. More than 100 companies and institutions now have access to Mythos 5, including many Fortune 500 companies, a source told Reuters.
“I have determined that appropriate safeguards are in place to permit certain trusted partners to access the Claude Mythos 5 Model,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote to Anthropic’s chief compute officer Tom Brown, citing “significant progress” in the intensive talks between the government and the company since the restrictions were imposed.
The move marks a major de-escalation after the Trump administration blocked access to Mythos 5 earlier this month, along with Fable 5, a weaker Anthropic model that had briefly been the most powerful AI model widely available to consumers. The restrictions followed warnings from Amazon and other companies that the models could be “jailbroken” for malicious purposes.
“Since the issuance of my June 12 letter, Anthropic has worked with the U.S. government to address risks associated with the Covered Models,” Lutnick said in the letter to Anthropic.
The letter did not address Fable 5, but people close to the talks said discussions are moving toward releasing that model as well, though the timing remains unclear.
Under the new arrangement, “a license will no longer be required to export, reexport, or in-country transfer (including deemed exports and reexports) the Claude Mythos 5 Model to entities identified in Annex A to this letter and their foreign national employees, or to Anthropic’s foreign national employees.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
(Photo: Benjamin Girette/Bloomberg)
The decision came the same day Anthropic’s leading competitor, OpenAI, released its latest model, GPT-5.6, to a short list of government-approved partners.
Lutnick’s letter points to the early outlines of a new regulatory framework giving the U.S. government greater control over the rollout of frontier AI models. Executives at leading AI labs have resisted the possibility of delays that could cost them time in the global race to develop and commercialize advanced artificial intelligence, but Commerce officials highlighted the speed of the talks with Anthropic.
“In just two weeks, we have worked diligently to ensure America remains the global leader in AI while safeguarding our security,” Commerce Department spokesman Benno Kass said.
The framework for overseeing advanced AI models is still being shaped in real time. Many potential users, including non-U.S. governments, foreign companies and consumers, remain uncertain about when they will gain access to Mythos 5 or Fable 5. European officials and other U.S. allies have expressed frustration over their growing dependence on decisions made in Washington.
The U.S. government had expressed concern that Mythos had been released to partners with links too close to China, reportedly including a South Korean telecommunications provider.
Anthropic has committed to continue working with the U.S. government on protocols and standards for future model releases, Lutnick wrote.
“Anthropic has committed to work with the U.S. government on protocols and standards and releases” for its models, he said.