‘Was Sort Of Confused’: OpenAI’s Altman On Awkward Moment With Anthropic’s Amodei At AI Summit

Last Updated:February 19, 2026, 17:20 IST

Altman and Amodei, standing next to each other, contemplated for a few seconds whether they wanted to hold hands.

India AI Summit 2026: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei drew netizens’ eyes after they raised clenched fists instead of holding hands during a group photograph with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Thursday.

PM Modi, on the fourth day of the summit, was on stage, flanked by the likes of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang, Google Deepmind CEO Demis Hassabis, Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar, Altman, and Amodei, for a group photo.

Altman and Amodei, standing next to each other, contemplated for a few seconds whether they wanted to hold hands. Eventually, they raised clenched fists instead of holding each other’s hands like others.

Meanwhile, Altman clarified about the momentary hesitation he shared with Amodei at the international stage, saying that he was confused about what he was supposed to be do on the stage.

Speaking to Moneycontrol, Altman said that he was “sort of confused" when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was at the centre of the stage, grabbed his hand and thrust it upwards. “I just wasn’t sure what we were supposed to be doing," he told the news outlet.

The AI Rivalry

The awkward moment highlighted the growing rivalry between OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, and Anthropic, headed by Dario Amodei.

Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, including Amodei, who previously served as OpenAI’s Vice President of Research. In 2020, Amodei, his sister Daniela Amodei, and other senior researchers departed from OpenAI due to disagreements with Altman and the board regarding the company’s direction.

The split reflected differing philosophies around AI safety, governance, and commercial strategy. Anthropic positions itself as a safety-focused AI lab, emphasising alignment and responsible development through its Claude model family.

OpenAI, meanwhile, has pursued rapid product deployment alongside safety research, bringing ChatGPT and enterprise AI tools to market at scale. The companies now compete directly in foundation models, enterprise partnerships, and government engagement, with both seeking leadership in the race toward artificial general intelligence (AGI).

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