GoKawiilPresident Donald Trump points his finger as he signs an executive order on AI next to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, left, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Dec. 11, 2025.
The Trump administration has taken new steps to assert more control over the rollout of future artificial intelligence model releases by dictating which companies and entities are allowed access to the latest frontier models, two people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Until now, that decision was in the hands of American AI giants.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI have decided which companies and agencies have access to their most powerful models, and have often included major enterprise customers.
Anthropic unveiled its most capable Mythos cybersecurity model to a handful of partners with Project Glasswing. OpenAI was asked by the administration to gate its recent GPT-5.6 release, and has a similar consortium called Daybreak for its cybersecurity model.
A White House official told CNBC that it doesn't provide approvals for AI releases from private companies.
The official said any engagements, testing or meetings with government experts are "voluntary" and that "decisions on timing and scope of releases rest entirely with the companies," referring CNBC to Trump's recent executive order.
"The Administration continues to collaborate with all of America's frontier labs to strengthen the security of this technology without stifling innovation," they wrote.
However, last month the Trump administration blocked Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5 due to "national security concerns," reinstating access after weeks of intense negotiations with Anthropic. OpenAI last month said it would limit new AI models to "trusted partners" to comply with government requests.