OpenAI CEO Sam Altman subtly criticized rival Anthropic on Thursday, saying he thinks it’s “bad for society” if companies start abandoning their commitment to the democratic process because “some people don’t like the person or people currently in charge.”
“The government is supposed to be more powerful than private companies,” Altman said during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei criticized Altman’s relationship with the Trump administration in a memo to employees on Friday, according to a report by The Information. Amodei reportedly wrote that Anthropic has not praised Trump in the style of a dictator, while Altman has.
The Defense Department has clashed with Anthropic in recent weeks over how the agency can use its artificial intelligence models. Negotiations escalated, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declaring Anthropic a “national security supply chain risk” in a post on X on Friday.
President Donald Trump also ordered all US federal agencies to “immediately cease” all use of Anthropic’s technology.
Hours later, Altman announced that OpenAI had formed its own agreement with the Department of Defense. The company has faced criticism for announcing the deal so soon after Anthropic was blacklisted, with Altman admitting it seemed “opportunistic and careless.”
He said Thursday that the company’s intention was to alleviate the situation.
“It’s complicated, we’re busy with other things,” Altman said. “But last week, when things started to fall out, it became increasingly clear to us that there was a possibility that things could go very wrong.”
OpenAI was founded as a non-profit research lab in 2015 and became popular following the launch of its chatbot ChatGPT in 2022. The company has become one of the fastest growing commercial companies on the planet since then and announced a $110 billion funding round amounting to $730 billion. pre-money valuation last week.
In February, ChatGPT supports more than 900 million weekly active users, up from 800 million in October. But the company is locked in fierce competition with rivals such as Anthropic and Google as they compete to gain even more users and market share.
OpenAI’s annual revenue run 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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