OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to rival Anthropic’s Super Bowl ad campaign, which took a jab at OpenAI’s decision to incorporate ads into its ChatGPT platform.
Anthropic, the start up behind Claude, unveiled several commercials on Wednesday, one of which is slated to air during the Super Bowl. The commercial shows someone asking a ChatGPT-like assistant for fitness tips, only for the interaction to shift into a pitch for a specific brand of insoles, suggesting that companies might exploit users' personal information for advertising purposes.
“Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” the description read.
The ad doesn’t name OpenAI, but indirectly targets it, following its plans to introduce ads in ChatGPT. Even OpenAI is set to run its own Super Bowl commercial.
Altman retaliated with a statement on X on Wednesday, branding the commercials as “clearly dishonest” and “deceptive.” He declared, “Our most important principle for ads says that we won’t do exactly this.”
First, the good part of the Anthropic ads: they are funny, and I laughed.
But I wonder why Anthropic would go for something so clearly dishonest. Our most important principle for ads says that we won't do exactly this; we would obviously never run ads in the way Anthropic…
He also charged Anthropic with providing “an expensive product to rich people” and attempting to “control what people do with AI” by barring companies it disapproves of, including OpenAI, from using its coding tool.
Altman further stated that OpenAI’s focus would always be on broadly expanding access to intelligence while continuously lowering costs for users.
However, Altman said that the ads were “funny,” and confessed to having “laughed.”
Anthropic Refuses Ads
OpenAI announced in January 2026 that it would test advertisements in its ChatGPT free and Go tiers, marking a shift in its approach to monetizing AI services. The company emphasized that the ads would be clearly labeled and would not influence the AI’s outputs. This was a in sharp contrast to Altman’s 2024 stance, where he had expressed his dislike for ads in chatbots as an aesthetic choice.
Meanwhile, Anthropic issued a statement on Wednesday promising to keep ads out of its chatbot Claude, stating, “There are many good places for advertising. A conversation with Claude is not one of them.”
Anthropic’s Business Model Better Than OpenAI?
Anthropic is targeting a 180% revenue growth and is seemingly winning the business model war against OpenAI. Anthropic projects $18 billion in revenue by 2026 and over $50 billion by 2027, a nearly 180% annual jump, according to Reuters.
Crucially, around 85% of revenue comes from enterprise customers, setting it apart from OpenAI's consumer-led model. By embedding Claude into corporate platforms like ServiceNow and JPMorgan, Anthropic is securing large, long-term contracts.
Meanwhile, Open AI has increased its focus on ChatGPT, which has reportedly led to a series of departures at senior research-level roles in the company.
The company is also on a fund raising spree. Reports suggest that the start up is in discussions to secure close to $40 billion in funding from its major suppliers, Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Amazon.com Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN), and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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