The CEO of OpenAI and Anthropic decided not to hold hands

On February 19, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei had an awkward moment when they both decided not to hold hands while taking photos with political and technology leaders at the AI ​​Impact Summit 2026 taking place in India. Both were keynote speakers at the event.

Specifically, when standing for a photo with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and many other figures, while everyone was holding hands in the air, Altman and Amodei only raised their fists. Both also avoided looking into each other’s eyes, but their attitudes were okay Bloomberg commented that it was “quite awkward”.

Altman and Amodei are now famous figures in the AI ​​world. If OpenAI has GPT, Anthropic is famous for products belonging to the Claude “family”. The two companies are also leading the list of the world’s most valuable private artificial intelligence businesses, with OpenAI worth about 500 billion USD, and Anthropic worth 380 billion USD.

The moment quickly spread on the Internet. “When was super intelligence AGI born? It was the day Dario and Sam held hands,” Siddharth Bhatia, co-founder of startup Puch AI, posted on X.

“When you’re forced to do a group project with people you don’t like,” Justine Moore, an investment partner at Andreesen Horowitz, shared humorously.

“Once an opponent, always an opponent” Bloomberg comment.

Theo CNBCbesides OpenAI and Amodei as rivals, this moment happened when both CEOs already disliked each other. Amodei used to work at OpenAI, but quit along with several colleagues and co-founded Anthropic in 2021 because he felt the company “was becoming too commercially focused, concerned about safety issues and Altman’s leadership style”.

Most recently, the two also “fought” online. It all started last month, when Anthropic released an ad during the Super Bowl with the purpose of mocking OpenAI’s plan to test ads with ChatGPT Go service for the US market.

Immediately, Altman called these ads dishonest: “I guess it’s Anthropic’s two-faced style of using a fraudulent ad to criticize theoretical fraudulent ads that aren’t real. But if it’s a Super Bowl ad, that’s something I don’t expect.”

Paul Smith, Anthropic’s chief customer officer, later said Anthropic was focusing on growing its business rather than creating “sensational headlines”. This is considered a clever reference to OpenAI.

At AI Impact Summit 2026, Amodei discussed the “serious risks” associated with AI, including the automated behavior of artificial intelligence systems, the potential for abuse, and the potential for economic displacement. In his keynote, Altman argued that the industry’s understanding of AI safety should include “society’s resilience,” adding that “no AI lab can deliver a good future on its own.”

The AI ​​Impact Summit 2026 event takes place February 16-20 in New Delhi, attracting more than 200 billion USD committed to investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure in India. However, according to Reutersthe event was also criticized for continuously making mistakes in its organization, including the sudden closure of exhibition booths, some participating units withdrawing, the event area being kilometers away from where the parking lot was, forcing guests to walk… Billionaire Bill Gates and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also announced that they would not participate at the last moment.