Three days. That was the lifespan of Anthropic’s newest AI models before the US Commerce Department pulled the plug.
On June 12, 2026, Anthropic suspended global access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 following a federal directive citing national security concerns and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. The suspension hit every foreign national worldwide, including those working inside the US. For India, Anthropic’s second-largest market, the timing could not have been worse.
India was deeply embedded in the company’s ecosystem. Tata Consultancy Services had been training 50,000 employees on Anthropic’s models. Infosys had recently entered into collaborations with the company. Select Indian entities had even started gaining access to Mythos through Project Glasswing, a cybersecurity initiative, just weeks before the suspension landed.
Anthropic has characterized the directive as potentially stemming from a “misunderstanding” and has expressed intent to restore access.
The reaction from India’s tech leadership was swift. Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu and Aarin Capital chairman Mohandas Pai both described the suspension as a “wake-up call” for India’s AI ambitions.
Pai has gone further, proposing Rs 50,000 crore (roughly $6 billion at current exchange rates) in funding for India’s national AI mission.
This directive represents a meaningful shift in US policy. Export restrictions used to focus almost exclusively on hardware, particularly advanced chips. This move expands control into AI software and models themselves.
The immediate market impact centers on Indian IT services giants. Companies like TCS and Infosys that had built business strategies around deploying Anthropic’s models now face uncertainty about the reliability of their AI supply chain.