OpenAI’s Altman takes jabs at Anthropic at Morgan Stanley conference
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a subtle jab at rival Anthropic on Thursday, saying he thought it would be “bad for society” if companies started abandoning their commitment to the democratic process because “some people don’t like the person or people in charge right now.”
“The government needs to be stronger than private companies,” Altman said during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei criticized Altman’s relationship with the Trump administration in a memo to employees Friday. Information. Amodei reportedly wrote that Anthropic did not give “dictator-style praise for Trump,” while Altman wrote.
The Department of Defense has clashed with Anthropic in recent weeks over how the agency might use artificial intelligence models. Negotiations heated up and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declared Anthropic a “Supply Chain Risk to National Security.” a post Friday at X.
President Donald Trump also called on every federal agency in the United States to “stop immediately” All use of Anthropic’s technology.
Hours later, Altman announced that OpenAI had struck its own deal with the Department of Defense. The company faced criticism for announcing the deal so soon after Anthropic was blacklisted, and Altman accepted it “seemed opportunistic and sloppy”.
The company’s intention is to de-escalate the situation, it said in a statement on Thursday.
“It’s complicated, we’re busy with other things,” Altman said. “But when things started to turn into a fight last week, it became increasingly clear to us that there was a possibility that things could go very badly.”
OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a non-profit research laboratory and went mainstream following the launch of chatbot ChatGPT in 2022. The company has since become one of the fastest-growing commercial businesses on the planet, announcing a $110 billion financing round worth $730 billion. Preliminary valuation last week.
ChatGPT supports more than 900 million weekly active users as of February, up from 800 million in October. However, the company is in fierce competition with rivals such as Anthropic. Google as they compete to gain more users and market share.
OpenAI’s annual revenue rate (ARR) recently surpassed $25 billion, while Anthropic surpassed $19 billion, according to sources familiar with the companies’ financials, who requested anonymity because the details are confidential.
–CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report
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