Sam Altman and Dario Amodei Make India Their Next AI Battlefield

It was meant to be a simple picture. To mark a busy day at the AI ​​Impact Conference in New Delhi this week, a string of business and political leaders joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on stage, raising their clasped hands in a show of unity. All but two. Standing on the sidelines, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei chose not to shake hands. Instead, they extended their fists—a now-viral term that perfectly captures their fierce AI rivalry. The two executives are fighting for consumers, business customers and, increasingly, global influence. Their latest battlefield: India.

Both Altman and Amodei recently announced a series of initiatives in India, racing to win over its 1.4 billion people and fast-growing digital ecosystem. Their companies already have important steps there. India counts nearly 100 million weekly OpenAI users of ChatGPT and is the second largest market for Anthropic’s Claude tools.

The rift between Altman and Amodei has been simmering for some time. Amodei previously worked at OpenAI before leaving in 2020 due to disagreements over the direction of the company. The following year, he co-founded Anthropic as a security-focused startup with several OpenAI colleagues, including his sister Daniela Amodei. Both startups have become AI powerhouses: OpenAI is valued at $500 billion, while Anthropic is valued at $380 billion.

In India, OpenAI has a start. The company opened an office in New Delhi last August. Anthropic announced plans to expand into the region in October. The company is now betting on the business sector. The recently announced partnership between Anthropic and Infosys will focus on building custom AI agents for companies in telecommunications, financial services, manufacturing and software. Anthropic’s offerings, which include its popular Claude coding tool, cater more to businesses, as opposed to OpenAI’s consumer-oriented features.

Anthropic is also opening its first India office in Bengaluru and has hired Microsoft executive Irina Ghose to manage its operations there. Other plans unveiled this week include training its models in several of India’s most widely spoken languages ​​and positioning the country as a key partner in testing the impact of AI on the labor market and piloting safety models. “India is the world’s largest democracy and can be an ally and leader in addressing global security and technological economic risks,” Amodei said at the conference.

India’s OpenAI strategy, in contrast, relies heavily on infrastructure. The maker of ChatGPT today launched its “OpenAI for India” initiative, which aims to expand access to its technology across the country. The central part is a partnership with Tata Group’s data center business, starting with 100 megawatts of computing capacity and eventually reaching one gigawatt.

OpenAI also plans to expand to two additional locations in Mumbai and Bengaluru by 2026, bringing its total number of offices in India to three. In his speech of the day at the conference, Altman described the country as “well-positioned to lead AI — not just to build it, but to shape it.”

Altman’s approach is closely aligned with other major tech players drawn by the Indian government-backed AI push. Google last year said it would invest $15 billion in an AI data center in the country. Microsoft followed with plans to commit $17.5 billion to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure there. Amazon has pledged $35 billion across its Indian operations by 2030.

The feud between Altman and Amodei has also spread to the public. Earlier this month, Anthropic spent millions on a Super Bowl campaign mocking OpenAI’s decision to test ads on ChatGPT. Altman did not take kindly to the jab, calling his opponent “dishonest.”

As for the awkward moment on stage in New Delhi, Altman later said that not being held by the hand was not intentional but the result of confusion during the photo shoot. Still, it was hard to miss the illustration. The competition between OpenAI and the Anthropic masters is only intensifying—and India is emerging as one of its most important sectors.