.png){kind=logo}
A few brief uneasy moments between AI leaders Sam Altman and Dario Amodei at the Indian AI Impact summit have sparked discussion across the industry. The way these two leaders avoided holding hands on stage highlighted the ongoing competition between OpenAI and Anthropic has intensified.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 20 February 2026, invited leaders of some of the top artificial intelligence companies to the stage as part of a commitment to build more “inclusive and multilingual” AI worldwide.
OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei had an awkward moment as they chose not to hold hands during a group photo of political and tech leaders.
As Modi lifted Altman and Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s hands in front of an applauding crowd, others on stage followed suit. However, Altman and Amodei, who were next to each other, raised their fists instead of holding hands with one another.
The image of Altman and Amodei opting not to hold hands has become a topic of discussion on social media. Siddharth Bhatia, cofounder of AI startup Puch AI, posted on X: “When AGI? The day Dario and Sam hold hands.”
Justine Moore, an investing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, shared a picture with the words: “When you’re forced to do a group project with your opp.”
Instead of holding hands, there is only a brief moment of awkward eye contact as the tech leaders largely avoid looking at each other.
“I didn't know what was happening,” Altman later said in a video interview with a news agency. He said he was “confused, like when (Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn’t sure what we were supposed to be doing.”
The rivalry between the two companies extends beyond the technical features of their projects. Anthropic has publicly committed to keeping its Claude chatbot ad-free, calling such promotional content "incongruous" with the personal nature of user conversations. It relies on enterprise deals and paid subscriptions for revenue.
On the other hand, OpenAI has introduced ads for around 800 million non-premium users. The analysts have criticized the move. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also hit back sharply at Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad campaign in a post, calling Anthropic "dishonest" and "authoritarian."
"Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people," he wrote, defending ChatGPT as a space that brings AI "to billions of people who can't pay for subscriptions." According to the US media reports, both companies are widely rumored to be preparing for IPOs in the near future.
Anthropic introduced its latest high-performing artificial intelligence model, Claude Opus 4.6. The company said this model represents a fundamental shift in how AI handles complex workplace tasks. OpenAI has also introduced GPT-5.3-Codex, a new flagship model described as a step up from GPT-5.2-Codex. It combines coding performance with stronger reasoning and professional knowledge into a single system.
Also Read: ‘Misanthropic’: Elon Musk Trolls Anthropic Amid US$30bn Valuation Milestone
Competition is intensifying between ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Claude maker Anthropic as both aim to have their models become the default choice for global consumers. Amodei has a contentious history with OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman. He spent over four years at OpenAI before leaving the startup to launch Anthropic. OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, with Anthropic following with its first version of Claude in 2023.
In an industry where partnerships, funding rounds, and product launches dominate headlines, subtle summit moments could take on outsized meaning. As the race for enterprise adoption and technological leadership accelerates, every public appearance carries strategic weight. Whether incidental or intentional, the moment between the OpenAI and Anthropic leaders underscores the intensifying competition shaping the AI landscape.
