the article lists three things, two of which are concerning beyond just losing some money. Granted, I have no idea how realistic the later two are.

    These consequences are generally understood to be some mix of :
    
    canceling the contract
    
    using the Defense Production Act, a law which lets the Pentagon force companies to do things, to force Anthropic to agree.
    
    the nuclear option, designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk”. This would ban US companies that use Anthropic products from doing business with the military2. Since many companies do some business with the government, this would lock Anthropic out of large parts of the corporate world and be potentially fatal to their business3. The “supply chain risk” designation has previously only been used for foreign companies like Huawei that we think are using their connections to spy on or implant malware in American infrastructure. Using it as a bargaining chip to threaten a domestic company in contract negotiations is unprecedented.