As the A.I. industry’s two most influential voices, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei are competing not only for market share but control over the public narrative. The rivalry was put to the test this week when Anthropic released a Super Bowl campaign poking fun at OpenAI’s recent move to introduce ads into ChatGPT. Altman didn’t take the jab lightly and is now trying to reclaim popular sentiment by framing his decision as one that will democratize technology, rather than keep it locked behind pricey subscription plans.
“Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people,” Altman wrote in an X post reacting to Anthropic’s Super Bowl campaign. “We are glad they do that, and we are doing that too, but we also feel strongly that we need to bring A.I. to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions.”
The OpenAI chief had previously dismissed advertisements as a “last resort” business model. But last month, OpenAI announced plans to test ads in ChatGPT for free users and subscribers of the entry-level “Go” tier. More expensive plans will remain ad-free. Altman has justified his change of heart as motivated by a desire to “make powerful A.I. accessible to everyone.” ChatGPT’s “Go” tier costs $8 a month, less than half of Claude’s entry-level plan, which costs $17.
To bolster his case, Altman noted that ChatGPT has far more users than Claude. “More Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the U.S.,” Altman wrote. “So we have a differently-shaped problem than they do.” ChatGPT has more than 800 million users globally. Anthropic hasn’t disclosed Claude’s user count.
Amodei worked under Altman at OpenAI before departing in 2020 over disagreements about the company’s approach to safety. Amodei, alongside his sister, Daniela, and a group of other former OpenAI staffers, launched Anthropic the following year.
There’s no question that both OpenAI and Anthropic have become powerhouses, albeit in different market segments. OpenAI, currently valued at $500 billion, relies on consumers for more than 60 percent of its revenue, while Anthropic, valued at $350 billion, draws 85 percent of its revenue from enterprise clients, according to CNBC.
On the consumer side, they are direct competitors with similar offerings. OpenAI’s monthly plans range from $8 to $200, while Anthropic’s plans run between $17 and $200. Both offer a free tier with usage limits and fewer features.
Altman is now eyeing an aggressive push into the enterprise A.I. market, which is projected to grow significantly in the coming years. OpenAI doubled down on that bet today (Feb. 5) with the release of Frontier, a platform that allows businesses to create and deploy A.I. agents as digital co-workers.
Anthropic is also favored among engineers for its coding A.I., Claude Code, which achieved $1 billion in annualized recurring revenue just six months after its launch last year. OpenAI has reacted by rolling out its own coding assistant, Codex, as a standalone app separate from ChatGPT. The app has been downloaded 500,000 times since its launch on Monday (Feb. 2), Altman said. “We are enjoying watching so many people switch to Codex…We think builders are really going to love what’s coming in the next few weeks. I believe Codex is going to win,” he added.
Until then, Altman is using the public square to win over users. Anthropic’s Super Bowl campaign is further evidence of the company’s agenda to “control what people do with A.I.,” Altman said, noting that Anthropic decides who can and cannot use its products. (It has blocked OpenAI’s access to Claude.) The parody ad takes it a step further, suggesting “now they also want to tell other companies what their business models can be,” Altman said.
