An awkward moment unfolded at the ongoing AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Thursday as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic chief Dario Amodei refused to hold hands during a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other tech leaders.
The duo, who were among the CEOs sharing the dais with PM Modi, chose raised fists instead as a gesture. PM Modi was at the centre of the high-profile lineup, which included Scale AI founder and Meta's AI chief Alexandr Wang as well as Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.
A video of the duo appearing unsure for a moment and then choosing to raise their fists has gone viral. Many entrepreneurs and other social media users noticed the awkward moment at the AI Summit, indicating the intense rivalry between the two top players in the global AI space.
When AGI?
— Siddharth Bhatia (@siddharthb_) February 19, 2026
The day Dario and Sam hold hands. pic.twitter.com/bfmqgnTV89
OpenAI And Anthropic's Rivalry
The two American AI companies have been locked in an intense competition for a long time. Anthropic was established by former OpenAI researchers who left due to concerns regarding the company's stance on AI safety, The Guardian reported.
Not just that, Anthropic launched a series of ads ahead of the Super Bowl earlier this month, criticising OpenAI's recent move to introduce ads for some ChatGPT subscribers in the US. The move comes as Altman reversed his long-term policy on placing ads in ChatGPT in a bid to gain more revenue and counter sluggish growth in subscribers.
The company is not directly mentioned in the adverts, but the decision came just weeks after OpenAI's move. All four commercials had the same tagline - “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” Claude is Anthropic's artificial intelligence agent.
OpenAI chief Sam Altman slammed the ad campaign on social media, calling the adverts “deceptive” and “clearly dishonest.”
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 4, 2026
But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won't do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…
Anthropic had said in a blog post dated Feb. 4 that Claude would always be free since adding commercials would impact its ability to be a “genuinely helpful assistant for work and for deep thinking.”
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Claude's user base is smaller compared to firms like Gemini and ChatGPT. However, it saw visits to its website increase 6.5% following its Super Bowl ads. The gain took Claude to the top 10 free apps on the Apple App Store, helping it beat rivals like OpenAI, Meta and Google, according to BNP Paribas data cited by CNBC. Daily active users on Claude also rose by 11% post the Super Bowl, compared to a 2.7% jump for ChatGPT and 1.4% for Gemini.
Both the AI companies are also set to launch their initial public offerings (IPOs) later in the year, the CNBC report added. Anthropic and OpenAI are raising record amounts of private funding while competing to win over companies and the best coding talent.
Anthropic raised $30 billion in a funding round at a $380 billion post-money valuation recently. OpenAI recorded the largest-ever private tech fundraising round last year, securing $8.3 billion in new capital as part of a $40 billion fundraise.
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