PUERTOLLANO, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 26, 2026--
Hydnum Steel has taken a decisive step towards constructing Spain’s first clean steel plant after being granted access to the electricity grid at the Brazatortas node in the province of Ciudad Real. The company has been granted an electricity capacity of 500 MW, as published in the Official State Gazette, which should be enough to guarantee supply to its electric arc furnace. This concession marks a significant milestone for a pioneering project in the Iberian Peninsula.
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Hydnum Steel is consolidating its position as a reliable supplier of clean European steel. The fully digitally integrated plant will produce hot-rolled steel coils efficiently and sustainably, with benefits for the environment and the economy. Hydnum Steel will deliver a solution for steel-consuming industries that need to decarbonize their production processes. It will also supply flat steel, which is in short supply in the EU. European countries import almost 11 million tons of steel per year. Hydnum Steel is set to produce 1.5 million tons in the inaugural phase, with projections indicating an eventual output of 2.7 million tons. Construction will begin in 2026, with an investment of more than €1.5 billion. More than 400 direct jobs are expected to be generated by Hydnum Steel in its initial phase, with this figure eventually exceeding 1,000.
During the process of establishing the connection, the Ministry of Ecological Transition gives precedence to schemes that decrease emissions. The magnitude of investment and the projected start date are also given due consideration. Hydnum Steel excels in all these areas. By eliminating fossil fuels from the equation, it will use 100% renewable energy and achieve a 98% reduction in emissions compared to a conventional blast furnace steel mill.
The original source-language text of this announcement is the official, authoritative version. Translations are provided as an accommodation only, and should be cross-referenced with the source-language text, which is the only version of the text intended to have legal effect.
Image recreating the steel plant that Hydnum Steel will build in Puertollano, Spain
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said Thursday the artificial intelligence company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Pentagon’s demands to allow wider use of its technology.
The maker of the AI chatbot Claude said in a statement that it’s not walking away from negotiations, but that new contract language received from the Defense Department “made virtually no progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons.”
The Pentagon’s top spokesman has reiterated that the military wants to use Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology in legal ways and will not let the company dictate any limits ahead of a Friday deadline to agree to its demands.
Sean Parnell said Thursday on social media that the Pentagon “has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.”
Anthropic’s policies prevent its models, such as its chatbot Claude, from being used for those purposes. It’s the last of its peers — the Pentagon also has contracts with Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI — to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.
Parnell said the Pentagon wants to “use Anthropic’s model for all lawful purposes” but didn’t offer details on what that entailed. He said opening up use of the technology would prevent the company from “jeopardizing critical military operations.”
“We will not let ANY company dictate the terms regarding how we make operational decisions,” he said.
During a meeting on Tuesday between Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Amodei, military officials warned that they could cancel Anthropic's contract, designate the company as a supply chain risk, or invoke a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to give the military more sweeping authority to use its products, even if the company doesn’t approve.
Amodei said Thursday that "those latter two threats are inherently contradictory: one labels us a security risk; the other labels Claude as essential to national security.”
Parnell left out the threatened use of the Defense Production Act in the Thursday post on X and said Anthropic has “until 5:01 PM ET on Friday to decide.”
“Otherwise, we will terminate our partnership with Anthropic and deem them a supply chain risk,” he wrote.
The talks that escalated this week began months ago. Amodei said that given “the substantial value that Anthropic’s technology provides to our armed forces, we hope they reconsider.” But if they don't, he said Anthropic "will work to enable a smooth transition to another provider.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is not seeking reelection, said Thursday that the Pentagon has been handling the matter unprofessionally while Anthropic is “trying to do their best to help us from ourselves.”
“Why in the hell are we having this discussion in public?” Tillis told reporters. "This is not the way you deal with a strategic vendor that has contracts.”
He added, “When a company is resisting a market opportunity for fear of negative consequences, you should listen to them and then behind closed doors figure out what they’re really trying to solve.”
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was “deeply disturbed” by reports that the Pentagon is “working to bully a leading U.S. company.”
“Unfortunately, this is further indication that the Department of Defense seeks to completely ignore AI governance," Warner said in a statement. It "further underscores the need for Congress to enact strong, binding AI governance mechanisms for national security contexts.”
As Pentagon officials say they always will follow the law with their use of AI models, Hegseth told Fox News last February, weeks after becoming defense secretary, that “ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything.”
Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.
FILE - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stands outside the Pentagon during a welcome ceremony for the Japanese defense minister at the Pentagon in Washington, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)
Pages from the Anthropic website and the company's logos are displayed on a computer screen in New York on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
