Modi’s AI summit turns awkward as tech leaders Sam Altman and Dario
Amodei dodge contact
[February 20, 2026] By
SHEIKH SAALIQ and MATT O'BRIEN
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited
leaders of some of the top artificial intelligence companies to gather
on stage as part of a commitment to build more “inclusive and
multilingual” AI around the world.
And they did. But what caught some of the audience's attention, and
later went viral on social media, was an awkward interaction between two
rival tech leaders: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
Modi, host of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, clasped hands
with those closest to him — Altman to his left and Google CEO Sundar
Pichai to his right — and beckoned all 13 tech leaders to lift their
hands up in a chain, like theater actors at the end of a show.
Everyone was holding hands except for Altman and Amodei, who stood next
to each other but for several seconds awkwardly avoided hand contact.
Both eventually put up their fists instead.
The interaction quickly became a visual symbol of the deep rivalries in
the AI industry, particularly between OpenAI and Anthropic, though
Altman sought to brush off any deeper meaning.
“I didn't know what was happening,” Altman later said in a video
interview with Indian media outlet Moneycontrol. He said he was
“confused, like when (Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just
wasn’t sure what we were supposed to be doing.”
Anthropic declined to comment.
The two AI developers have a history, one that predates the creation of
OpenAI's hit product, ChatGPT, and Anthropic's competing chatbot Claude.
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In this photo provided by Indian Prime Minister's Office, India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during the AI Summit in New
Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Indian Prime Minister's
Office via AP)
 Amodei worked at OpenAI before he
and a group that included his sister, Daniela Amodei, quit to form
Anthropic in 2021. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the
safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general
intelligence that both San Francisco firms aim to build.
OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, revealing the huge
commercial potential of AI large language models that could help
write emails and computer code and answer questions. Anthropic
followed with its first version of Claude in 2023.
Their different approaches spilled over into public debate earlier
this month in the United States when Anthropic aired TV commercials
during the Super Bowl that ridiculed OpenAI for the digital
advertising it’s beginning to place in free and cheaper versions of
ChatGPT.
While Anthropic has centered its revenue model on selling Claude to
other businesses, OpenAI has opened the doors to ads as a way of
making money from the hundreds of millions of consumers who get
ChatGPT for free. Altman took to social media to criticize the TV
commercials as dishonest.
——
O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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