Trump administration blocks foreign access to Anthropic AI models under export controls

Anthropic disabled Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 on June 12 after a U.S. Commerce Department order required licenses for any export, reexport or transfer of the models to foreign individuals, including inside the United States and among Anthropic’s own foreign-born employees. Anthropic said it could not effectively enforce nationality-based restrictions and therefore shut the models down entirely, while lower-capability models such as Claude Opus 4.8 remained available. The action followed administration concerns, reported by Axios and The Wall Street Journal, that the models posed security risks tied to a narrow technique that could bypass part of Fable 5’s safety system, though Anthropic said the issue did not amount to a universal jailbreak and exposed only previously known minor vulnerabilities. Fortune reported on June 13 that the shutdown triggered criticism across the AI industry and could weigh on investor sentiment as Anthropic pursues a confidential IPO filing after its latest funding valued the company at $96.5 billion.