OpenAI's and Anthropic's CEOs Compete Over Contracts In a Deeply Personal Fight

IBL News | New York

OpenAI and Anthropic, with headquarters two miles apart in San Francisco, are ferociously competing over Pentagon contracts in a deeply personal fight, The New York Times analyzed.

OpenAI has created the fastest-growing consumer app in tech history, with over 900 million people using its ChatGPT and nine million paying businesses. Its revenue is expected to top $25 billion this year while it holds more than $100 billion in the bank.

But in a few months, Anthropic, OpenAI’s smaller rival, has added thousands of big businesses as customers, more than doubling its expected revenue this year to $19 billion, up from $9 billion last year.

Anthropic’s smartphone app soared to the No. 1 spot in Apple’s App Store downloads after OpenAI jumped in with its own Pentagon deal. Days later, the War Secretary labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” a declaration that prevents its technology from being used in any defense contract work.

Now, Anthropic is facing new adversaries in President Trump and officials in his administration.
“Well, I fired Anthropic,” Donald J. Trump said in an interview last week. “Anthropic is in trouble,” he added.

However, Anthropic aims to I.P.O. before OpenAI does this year, seeking an early advantage with investors.

Other companies, like Google, Microsoft, Meta, and a wide range of start-ups around the world, are also vying for AI leadership.

Anthropic’s CEO, Dr. Dario Amodei, was vice president of research at OpenAI, but he had concerns over safety and thought Sam Altman was moving fast to commercialize the technology. He quit and took a group of OpenAI researchers with him to create Anthropic, a for-profit company that vows to meet certain standards for social impact and accountability.

Now, they both dislike each other, and their beliefs about how AI should be developed have direct implications for the companies’ businesses.