Anthropic Under Fire: Massive Claude Outage Amid Geopolitical Pressure and Corporate Client Exodus
On June 18, the Claude chatbot from Anthropic experienced a major outage. Thousands of users worldwide were unable to load the service or send messages. According to monitoring aggregators, the peak of complaints occurred at 10:03 Moscow time, when the number of reports exceeded 770.
This is already the second serious incident in a month. In early June, Claude had already shown instability affecting the web interface, mobile app, and the Claude Code platform. However, the current outage coincided with a period of maximum external pressure on the company, making the situation particularly telling.
Technical Instability Amid Geopolitics
Access issues with Claude have intensified an already tense information environment around Anthropic. This week, it became known that JPMorgan Chase banned its employees in Hong Kong from using Anthropic models. The bank cited wording in the licensing agreement, which led it to exclude Claude from the list of approved language models. Goldman Sachs had previously taken a similar step, indicating a systemic trend among major financial institutions.
These decisions fit into the context of growing tensions between the US and China in the areas of AI technology, data security, and access to advanced computing tools. The Trump administration, in turn, has increased pressure: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick demanded that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei suspend the export of the Mythos and Fable models to all foreign nationals, citing risks of their use by the military intelligence of China, Russia, and other countries.
Political Background: G7 and the European Union
Against this backdrop, on June 17, a dinner of G7 leaders took place in Évian-les-Bains, France, with the participation of Amodei, Sam Altman (OpenAI), Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind), and Arthur Mensch (Mistral). Officially, discussions focused on how AI could stimulate economic growth and enhance societal resilience. However, according to participants, the "elephant in the room" remained the dispute between the Trump administration and Anthropic. Notably, a report on the bilateral meeting between the US President and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did not mention the Anthropic issue at all.
Europe is taking a cautious stance. Brussels emphasizes that countermeasures should not be discriminatory toward partners. EU technology chief Henna Virkkunen stated that the main task is to restore trust, not to create new lines of division. Meanwhile, no official notification of export controls has been received from US authorities—only a statement from Anthropic itself.
Analyst's Conclusion
The Claude outage is not just a technical incident. It is a symptom of deeper problems: Anthropic has found itself at the intersection of technological instability and intense geopolitical pressure. The loss of trust from key corporate clients such as JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs could have long-term consequences for the company's business. If Anthropic fails to demonstrate the ability to quickly restore infrastructure and find a balance in its relations with regulators, its position in the AI market could be seriously undermined.