Anthropic has found itself an unexpected celebrity supporter in its spat with the Department of Defense: Katy Perry.
Early Saturday morning, the “Roar” singer shared a screenshot on X of an annual Claude Pro subscription at $214.99, with a love heart drawn around the billing options.
Perry’s caption had only one word: “done.” The post quickly went viral, racking up 2.8 million views and 21,000 likes as of early Saturday.
“Holy Katy Perry 👀 Anthropic is receiving love from everyone now,” one user who reshared the singer’s post said.
Perry’s post came hours after the Department of Defense labelled the AI company a supply chain risk and said it would phase out its military contracts.
Anthropic said Friday that it would challenge the supply chain risk designation in court. The DoD’s move amounts to blacklisting a US-based company and could make it much harder for Anthropic to get government contracts.
“We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday.
Perry, who is dating former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has previously supported Democratic candidates and has posted cryptic social media messages that some read as criticism of Trump.
Katy Perry picked Anthropic, but was it just to try it?
It’s not clear what Perry might do with her Claude Pro subscription, the advanced version of Anthropic’s tool that has wiped billions off software stocks due to its capabilities, such as coding and tackling complex projects.
Perry’s Anthropic post appears to be part of a wider swelling of support for the AI startup after it took what some see as a principled stance against the US government.
Anthropic had said it was not willing to drop two safeguards: mass surveillance of US citizens and autonomous weapons.
The Department of Defence has been hot and then cold with Anthropic. Claude became the first AI model approved for certain classified military operations. However, things soured ahead of a Friday ultimatum issued by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, which called on Anthropic to agree to let the US military use Claude for all lawful military purposes without company-imposed restrictions.
On Saturday, Claude had jumped up to second across all apps in Apple’s App Store, behind only OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Earlier this month, Claude jumped from number 41 to the top 10 after its Super Bowl ads, which took jabs at rival OpenAI, were a hit.
OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, said late Friday that it has struck a deal with the Department of Defense to use its AI models. It came hours after the Pentagon severed its relationship with rival Athropic. Altman had previously tried to navigate the situation by stating AI companies need to work with the military, but shouldn’t be compelled to do so.
