AI rivals Sam Altman and Dario Amodei avoid holding hands at India AI Summit

New Delhi: A brief on-stage moment involving OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 has gone viral online, after cameras caught the two executives avoiding a handhold during a group photo opportunity with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The incident occurred during a post-keynote photo-op where several global tech leaders joined Modi on stage. As the Prime Minister clasped hands with executives on either side for the cameras, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, standing next to each other, raised their fists separately rather than linking hands. 

The clip has since circulated across social platforms, triggering commentary and memes.

The moment drew attention because the two CEOs lead rival AI companies competing for enterprise budgets, developer adoption and influence in policy debates, and because the companies have recently traded public barbs over monetisation choices in conversational AI.

In January 2026, OpenAI said it had begun testing ads in ChatGPT, stating the ads would be clearly labelled, separated from answers, and would not influence responses, while maintaining that conversations remain private from advertisers.

Anthropic has positioned itself on the opposite side of that debate. It bought Super Bowl ad slots to criticise the idea of advertising inside chatbot conversations, according to reporting on the campaign.

The wider industry conversation has also pulled in other players. Perplexity has publicly argued that ads can undermine trust in AI answers and has discussed moving away from advertising, as the sector debates whether subscriptions, usage fees or ads are the sustainable path for consumer AI. 

Amodei previously worked at OpenAI and left to co-found Anthropic in 2021. He has described differences in approach as part of the reason for the move, including a stronger focus on alignment and safety frameworks rather than only scaling models.

The India AI Impact Summit has brought global AI leaders to New Delhi for discussions on AI infrastructure, governance and adoption, with the event drawing close online attention beyond the policy agenda.