A symbolic show of unity at the India AI Impact Summit took an awkward turn on Thursday when OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei declined to hold hands during a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, raising their fists instead as other tech leaders linked arms.
The moment unfolded after Modi’s address, when he invited executives on stage to join hands and raise them aloft. Most complied, including Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Altman and Amodei, however, stood side by side with their raised fists kept conspicuously apart, breaking the chain.
Altman appeared visibly uncomfortable, looking away as others followed Modi’s cue. The episode, captured on camera, quickly went viral on social media, with many users describing it as emblematic of the intensifying “AI cold war” between the rival firms.
"I didn't know what was happening on stage. I wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing," Altman later told news website Moneycontrol.
OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
From colleagues to competitors
Altman, 40, has led OpenAI since 2019. Amodei, three years older, co-founded Anthropic after leaving OpenAI in 2020 along with his sister Daniela Amodei and other senior researchers amid disagreements over the company’s direction, safety approach, commercialisation strategy and Altman’s leadership style.
Anthropic, established in 2021, went on to develop the Claude series of large language models, positioning itself as a direct competitor to OpenAI. The rivalry has since hardened into one of Silicon Valley’s fiercest commercial battles. At this year’s Super Bowl, Anthropic aired satirical commercials taking a pointed jab at OpenAI’s plans to introduce advertising inside ChatGPT.
Summit draws investment, faces disruptions
The summit, despite organisational lapses, a robot-related controversy and complaints of traffic chaos, secured more than $200 billion in investment pledges. However, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates pulled out hours before his scheduled keynote address, dealing a blow to the high-profile gathering.
What was intended as a staged moment of solidarity instead highlighted the deep competitive fissures shaping the global artificial intelligence industry.