Anthropic’s chatbot Claude appears to be benefiting from the attention surrounding the company’s difficult negotiations with the Department of Defense.
As of Saturday afternoon, Claude currently ranks No. 2 among free apps on Apple’s U.S. App Store, as first reported by CNBC. The number one app is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and third place is Google Gemini.
Claude was outside the top 100 at the end of January, but spent most of February in the top 20, according to SensorTower data. Its ranking has risen over the past few days, from 6th place on Wednesday to 4th place on Thursday and 2nd place on Saturday (today).
After Anthropic sought to negotiate safeguards that would prevent the Pentagon from using its AI models for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies to halt all use of Anthropic’s products and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was designating the company as a supply chain threat.
OpenAI later announced its own agreement with the Department of Defense, which CEO Sam Altman claimed included domestic surveillance and safeguards related to autonomous weapons.
