Trump Curbs Anthropic's Mythos After SK Telecom China
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- Trump administration imposed export controls on Anthropic's Claude Mythos after US officials cited concerns about SK Telecom's alleged China ties gaining access to the model through Project Glasswing.
- Anthropic disabled Mythos and Fable 5 entirely on Friday after the administration ordered access revoked for all foreign nationals, choosing to shut the models down rather than implement nationality-based gating that would be "difficult to implement while also preserving privacy."
- Amazon researchers flagged to the White House that Fable 5's guardrails could be circumvented to access Mythos' cybercapabilities, though Anthropic and outside cybersecurity experts argued these risks are not unique to Claude.
- SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier, became one of roughly 150 companies in Project Glasswing earlier this month and had previously invested $100 million in Anthropic in 2023 alongside a commercial partnership to build a telecom-tailored AI model.
- SK Telecom generated only about $1.9 million in China revenue in 2024 and employed just seven people there, per its annual report, though SK Group affiliates maintain extensive China business interests spanning semiconductors and energy, including a 20-year-old UNISK joint venture with China Unicom.
- Anthropic immediately complied when the White House first asked it to revoke SK Telecom's access earlier this month — before the export control threat — and the US government's subsequent letter demanding nationality-based restrictions does not reference the Korean company or China at all.
- SK Telecom denied any China ties, telling a Korean newspaper that "anonymous insider's remarks in foreign media lack verified facts, and our company has no ties to China."
Why it matters: The dispute forces Anthropic to either accept nationality-based access controls on its most powerful model or keep Mythos and Fable 5 entirely offline — a high-stakes choice that effectively halts the Project Glasswing program for foreign partners including Samsung and the Korea Internet and Security Agency. The "China ties" justification is paper-thin at SK Telecom's operating level ($1.9M revenue, 7 employees), but SK Group's broader portfolio gives the administration a defensible basis, setting a precedent where any foreign Glasswing participant's conglomerate affiliations could trigger retroactive revocation.
