When AI can’t fix egos: OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei skip hand-hold at Delhi AI Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called for a shared and inclusive approach to artificial intelligence at the AI Impact Summit. However, a subtle moment on stage caught everyone’s attention when Sam Altman and Dario Amodei stood side by side, not joining hands, while others held hands in a symbolic gesture. The two executives from OpenAI and Anthropic shared the dais with Modi and other tech leaders, including Sundar Pichai, but seemed uneasy standing side by side.

A quiet stage moment sparks buzz

Even as the summit projected unity, the visual of Altman and Amodei not joining hands during a group gesture drew attention in tech circles.

Both leaders have been at the centre of growing competition between their companies, OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the most influential players in the global AI race.


Amodei founded Anthropic in 2021 after leaving OpenAI, citing differences over the direction of AI development, particularly on safety and commercial priorities, according to media reports.

Before his departure, Amodei had served as OpenAI’s vice president of research and was closely involved in building early large language models such as GPT-2 and GPT-3. Several colleagues left the company during 2020 and 2021 amid disagreements over strategy and governance.

Public sparring adds to rivalry

The rivalry has become more visible in recent weeks. Reports said Anthropic spent millions on commercials during the National Football League championship game that criticised OpenAI’s reported plans to introduce advertising on ChatGPT.

Responding to the campaign, Altman described the Anthropic advertisement as “deceptive” in a post on X.

Funding surge and product push

The tensions come alongside rapid growth for Anthropic. The Claude chatbot maker recently raised $30 billion in a funding round that more than doubled its valuation to $380 billion, underlining strong investor appetite for AI companies.

Anthropic has also sharpened its focus on coding tools, with its Claude Code offering gaining traction among developers and enterprises. The company’s latest plugins for its Cowork agent have triggered fresh debate in financial markets, with investors weighing how advanced AI models could reshape the global software industry.