OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Throws Shade At Anthropic's New Ad Amid Tussle With Elon Musk, Apple: 'Thought This Was Satire'

• Altman took a swipe at a new advertisement for Anthropic’s Claude.
• In the past few days, he has again rebutted Elon Musk and said he is “not afraid of Apple” following the iPhone maker’s lawsuit.
• Investors are closely watching developments at OpenAI as it moves toward a public listing.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a more combative tone toward tech rivals on Monday, days after his AI startup was hit with a major trade-secret theft lawsuit by Apple.

“Come for the best model, stay because we don’t treat you with contempt,” Altman posted on X on Monday, without context. Given the timing, X users interpreted it as criticism aimed at companies like Apple, Anthropic or SpaceXAI.

In a separate post, Altman took a swipe at a new advertisement for Anthropic’s Claude. The ad, titled “There’s Hope in Hard Questions,” features a narrator reflecting on whether AI can be built to benefit humanity. Responding to it, Altman wrote, “i thought this was satire, kept looking for the handle to be spelled c1audeai or something.”

Anthropic was started by former OpenAI employees, and the company now appears to be leading in the AI market.

Altman Sharpens The Rhetoric

The OpenAI CEO is no stranger to quirky responses to online critics, but lately he appears to be taking a more head-on approach.

In the past few days, he’s rebutted criticism from SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, saying that he was wooing public market investors with unproven claims about space data centers and that he is “not afraid of Apple” following the iPhone maker’s lawsuit.

Altman and Musk have frequently traded jabs online amid Musk’s long-running legal campaign against OpenAI, including challenges to its restructuring and its relationship with Apple.

Apple Lawsuit 

On Friday, Apple said it sued OpenAI in California, alleging that OpenAI encouraged Apple employees to share information, components, drawings, and other materials related to upcoming products — as part of OpenAI's efforts to develop its own suite of devices.

The suit also named Tang Tan, a 25-year Apple veteran who joined OpenAI as its chief hardware officer last year, as a defendant. The suit marks a dramatic turn for two companies that were close partners. OpenAI has powered Apple Intelligence and Siri, but ties between the two have frayed over the past year.

OpenAI IPO Watch 

Investors are closely watching developments at OpenAI as it moves toward a public listing, setting up a potential IPO showdown with chief rival Anthropic.

Both companies confidentially filed IPO paperwork with regulators last month, before reports emerged that OpenAI may delay its listing until next year rather than the previously expected fourth-quarter timeline.

OpenAI now broadly trails Anthropic, based on the most recently disclosed numbers. In April, Anthropic said it tripled its annual revenue run rate to $30 billion, surpassing OpenAI’s ARR of about $24 billion. 

Anthropic is valued at $1.08 trillion, compared to OpenAI’s private market valuation of $868.4 billion, according to data from Nasdaq Private Market.

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