As OpenAI goes to Washington, Anthropic goes viral: How the Pentagon feud fueled growth for Claude

As OpenAI was cutting deals with the Pentagon, Anthropic was at odds with it. And as it turns out, that fight has been very good for business for the Claude-maker. According to a report by TechCrunch, an analysis of billions of anonymised credit card transactions from approximately 28 million US consumers, shows Claude is gaining paid subscribers in record numbers between January and February 2026.

Interestingly, this is a period during which reports uncovered the feud between Anthropic and Depatment of War over the use of the tech company’s AI technology. Moreoevr, Anthropic confirmed to TechCrunch that Claude paid subscriptions have more than doubled this year. The research was conducted by consumer transaction analysis firm Indagari for the publication.

The fight that put Anthropic on the map

The chain of events that drove Claude’s subscription growth began in late January, when reports from the Wall Street Journal, Axios and other outlets started surfacing about a deepening dispute between Anthropic and the US military.

The graph in the report suggests that the surge was steep in the February month.Both the sides disagreed on what the Pentagon could and could not do with Anthropic's AI models. Anthropic drew clear lines: no use of its technology for autonomous weapons operations, and no mass surveillance of American citizens. The Department of War pushed back hard, eventually threatening to label Anthropic a supply chain risk – a designation that could have seriously damaged its government business.

Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei responded publicly and firmly on February 26. Lawsuits followed, tech companies threw weight behind Anthropic and even Katy Perry shared a screenshot that showed that she subscribed to the top-tier subscription of Claude AI. the report showed that new subscriber growth also climbed sharply throughout this period, with the increase particularly pronounced between the initial media reports in late January and Amodei's public statement at the end of February.

The Super Bowl ads 'damaged' OpenAI

The Pentagon feud was not the only thing drove awareness about Claude. Anthropic also ran a series of Super Bowl commercials that took direct aim at OpenAI (without ever naming it), mocking ChatGPT's decision to introduce advertising to its platform, and promising that Claude would never do the same.The ads were sharp, funny, and effective - even Altman agreed to it but they also irritated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who later slammed Anthropic for those ads.TechCrunch report also noted that the majority of new subscribers are signing up at Claude's entry-level Pro tier, priced at $20 per month, with higher tiers available at $100 and $200 per month.