Altman and Amodei share a moment of awkwardness at India’s big AI summit

<p id="speakable-summary" class="wp-block-paragraph">What would have been a moment of united commitment to global tech innovation at the ongoing <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/16/all-the-important-news-from-the-ongoing-india-ai-summit/">India AI Impact Summit</a> instead proved an awkward one: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi prompted speakers at the event to join hands and raise them in a show of solidarity, all executives onstage obliged — except OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, who held their hands noticeably apart.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As leaders of the two foremost labs in the AI race, it goes without saying that Altman and Amodei are fierce competitors. That rivalry has only intensified in recent months: After OpenAI said it would bring advertisements to ChatGPT, Anthropic took a swipe at OpenAI in a couple ads during the Super Bowl, declaring that it would never introduce ads into Claude.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Altman soon after <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/04/sam-altman-got-exceptionally-testy-over-claude-super-bowl-ads/">hit back in response</a>, calling Anthropic “dishonest” and “authoritarian.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic depicts them. We are not stupid, and we know our users would reject that,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/sama/status/2019139174339928189?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2019139174339928189%7Ctwgr%5Ea2f07906d2a435e689eea553f42696c0422cebfb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2026%2F02%2F04%2Fsam-altman-got-exceptionally-testy-over-claude-super-bowl-ads%2F" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a> at the time.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Both Altman and Amodei were in India this week for the AI summit held in New Delhi, which saw a bevy of AI-related investments, features, and products being announced. OpenAI said it is opening two new offices in India, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/openai-taps-tata-for-100mw-ai-data-center-capacity-in-india-eyes-1gw/">partnering with IT giant TCS</a>, and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/openai-pushes-into-higher-education-as-india-seeks-to-scale-ai-skills/">deploying tools for higher education</a>. Anthropic has also opened an office in India and teamed up with <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/17/as-ai-jitters-rattle-it-stocks-infosys-partners-with-anthropic-to-build-enterprise-grade-ai-agents/">Infosys for internal and external deployment of its AI tools</a>.</p>