US Firms Draw Harder Lines Around AI Access Amid China-US Competition

Two major players in the financial and crypto industries have run into restrictions imposed by Anthropic's Claude AI model in Hong Kong. Goldman Sachs and OKX, a global crypto exchange, both had their staff cut off from using Claude due to geographic access rules.

The restrictions occurred months apart, but share the same underlying cause. OKX was temporarily suspended from its corporate Anthropic account before being barred from using Claude, with staff in Hong Kong or traveling through China affected by the ban. The exchange has since restored its account and will route AI requests to other models instead.

Goldman Sachs faced a similar restriction earlier in 2026, with the bank concluding that its contract didn't cover Hong Kong. This decision was made due to a contract dispute, not because the bank is retreating from Anthropic overall.

The overlap between these incidents points to a wider pattern. With Washington and Beijing competing for AI supremacy, US firms are drawing harder lines around who can use their technology and where.