Anthropic has sued the Trump administration after being barred from doing business with the Pentagon, while rival OpenAI moved swiftly to announce it had landed a deal for classified work with the Defense Department.
The sequence of events turned a long-simmering corporate rivalry into a public confrontation with national security implications, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation cited by "Hvylya". Sam Altman responded to the fight between Anthropic and the Pentagon by announcing OpenAI's defense deal - a move that drew a sharp reaction from Anthropic's leadership.
Dario Amodei, Anthropic's CEO, posted an internal message on Slack calling OpenAI "mendacious" and accusing Altman of a recurring pattern of behavior. The exchange marked the most visible public eruption in a feud that has shaped both companies for years.
The dispute traces back to a philosophical disagreement over how AI should interact with government. In early conversations at a San Francisco group house, Amodei argued that when it came to sensitive topics like AI development speed, "it would be better to tell the government first." His former colleague Greg Brockman took the opposite view, insisting that all Americans deserved to know what was coming.
The divide between the two companies - both valued above $300 billion - has its roots in those debates a decade ago. As both hurtle toward an IPO, the philosophical and personal differences between their leaders have, in the WSJ's words, "metastasized."
Anthropic's lawsuit against the Trump administration is pending in federal court.
Also read how a four-star general's admission shattered the Pentagon's official line on its secret AI platform.