Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) poses for a group photo with AI company leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (C) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (right), at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on February 19, 2026.
Ludovic Marin | AFP | Getty Images
OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei had an awkward moment Thursday when they chose not to hold hands during a group photo of political and technology leaders.
They joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and others on stage at the India AI Impact Summit. Both were keynote speakers.
Prime Minister Modi raised the hands of Altman and Pichai in front of the applauding crowd, followed by others. But instead of holding hands, Altman and Amodei, who were sitting next to each other, raised their fists.
This comes amid increasing competition between ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Claude maker Anthropic, with both companies vying to make their model the default choice for consumers around the world.
The two companies have recently exchanged views over the potential use of AI models in advertising.
Images of Altman and Amodei refusing to hold hands quickly went viral on social media.
Siddharth Bhatia, co-founder of AI startup Puch AI, posted on X, “When is AGI? The day Dario and Sam held hands.”
Justin Moore, an investment partner at Andreessen Horowitz, shared a photo with the words, “When you’re forced to do a group project with your colleagues.”
Last month, Anthropic released a Super Bowl commercial teasing OpenAI’s plans to begin testing ads for free users and ChatGPT Go subscribers in the United States.
Altman called the ads “patently dishonest” and said, “I think it’s common sense in anthropic doublespeak to use deceptive ads to criticize theoretical deceptive ads that aren’t real, but this Super Bowl ad is not what I would expect.”
Paul Smith, Anthropic’s chief customer officer, later told CNBC that OpenAI was secretly focused on growing the business rather than making “flashy headlines.”
“There’s still some work to be done to find out exactly which ad formats are most effective,” Altman told CNBC at the post-photo summit.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of former OpenAI staff and researchers, including Amodei, who left the company after disagreements over its direction. The company markets itself as a “safety first” alternative.
OpenAI and Anthropic have since raised billions of dollars in funding as they compete for users, enterprise customers, and market share.
In his speech at the summit on Thursday, Amodei discussed the “serious risks” associated with AI, including the autonomous operation of AI systems, the potential for misuse by individuals and governments, and the potential for economic ostracism.
In his speech, Altman argued that the industry’s understanding of AI safety must also include “society’s resilience,” adding, “We believe that no AI lab can deliver a good future on its own.”
