{"slug": "defense-production-act-set-to-expire-as-trump-eyes-ai-control-through-cold-war", "title": "Defense Production Act set to expire as Trump eyes AI control through Cold War-era powers", "summary": "The Defense Production Act, first enacted in 1950, is set to expire on September 30, 2026, as the Trump administration weighs using the Cold War-era law to compel frontier AI companies to cooperate with national security applications. In February 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and reportedly threatened to invoke the DPA to enforce compliance on military use of Anthropic's AI models, while Executive Order 14409 (June 2, 2026) and NSPM-11 (June 5, 2026) direct agencies to develop and adopt secure AI for national security. H.R. 7688 would extend DPA authorities five years to September 30, 2031 and add modernization provisions.", "body_md": "# Defense Production Act set to expire as Trump eyes AI control through Cold War-era powers\n\nThe 76-year-old law that once mobilized factories for the Korean War is now being wielded as leverage over frontier AI companies like Anthropic.\n\nA law designed to keep American factories humming during the Korean War is getting a very 21st-century makeover. The Defense Production Act, first enacted in 1950, is now at the center of the Trump administration’s strategy to maintain national security control over advanced artificial intelligence, with its core authorities set to expire on September 30, 2026.\n\n## A Cold War tool meets frontier AI\n\nThe DPA grants the executive branch sweeping powers: prioritizing government contracts, expanding industrial production, and responding to national emergencies. Over its lifetime, the law has been reauthorized more than 50 times, applied to everything from wartime manufacturing to pandemic-era supply chains.\n\nIn February 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and reportedly threatened to invoke the DPA to enforce compliance regarding military use of Anthropic’s AI models. The message was blunt: cooperate with defense applications, or the government has tools to compel it.\n\nFor a company that has publicly positioned itself as the “safety-first” AI lab, that kind of meeting carries significant weight. Anthropic has historically maintained restrictions on how its models can be used in military contexts, making the confrontation a direct collision between corporate AI ethics policies and national security imperatives.\n\n### Macro, rates, and crypto—what moved markets and what matters next.\n\nDaily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.\n\n## Executive action and legislative maneuvering\n\nExecutive Order 14409, issued on June 2, 2026, emphasizes the development of secure AI technologies specifically for national security applications. Three days later, NSPM-11 directed agencies to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence across the national security apparatus.\n\nOn the legislative side, the current DPA expiration date exists because of a one-time extension tucked into the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act. A new bill, H.R. 7688, proposes extending DPA authorities for five years, pushing the deadline to September 30, 2031, while also including modernization provisions designed to update the law for an era its original authors couldn’t have imagined.\n\n**Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our\n\n[Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defense-production-act-set-to-expire-as-trump-eyes-ai-control-through-cold-war", "canonical_source": "https://cryptobriefing.com/defense-production-act-trump-ai-control/", "published_at": "2026-09-18 16:54:43+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-18 16:56:44.644101+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-safety"], "entities": ["Defense Production Act", "Donald Trump", "Pete Hegseth", "Anthropic", "Dario Amodei", "Executive Order 14409", "NSPM-11", "H.R. 7688"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defense-production-act-set-to-expire-as-trump-eyes-ai-control-through-cold-war", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defense-production-act-set-to-expire-as-trump-eyes-ai-control-through-cold-war.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defense-production-act-set-to-expire-as-trump-eyes-ai-control-through-cold-war.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/defense-production-act-set-to-expire-as-trump-eyes-ai-control-through-cold-war.jsonld"}}