--- title: "Anthropic Declares $20 Million War On OpenAI" description: "Anthropic is not about to let OpenAI have all the say in how AI gets regulated, so it's officially ready to pour money into politics." date: "2026-02-13" modified: "2026-02-13" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/anthropic-war-openai" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Anthropic Declares $20 Million War On OpenAI ![Sam Altman and Dario Amodei are featured in a stylized, high-contrast image with a yellow grid background. The image has a halftone texture effect.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images* Anthropic is taking off the gloves and ramping up its war with bitter rival OpenAI. On Thursday, the Claude chatbot maker announced it was pouring $20 million into a new super PAC formed to oppose the super PACs backed by OpenAI figures, [*The New York Times* reports](). With the donation, the dueling companies are poised to fight over shaping the future of the industry's regulation by backing favored candidates in the upcoming midterm elections. Anthropic, generally speaking, is in favor of stronger guardrails, while OpenAI opposes stricter regulation. "The AI policy decisions we make in the next few years will touch nearly every part of public life," Anthropic wrote in the [announcement](). "We don't want to sit on the sidelines while these policies are developed." Anthropic was founded in 2021 with a focus on safety. It was formed from a splinter group of former OpenAI employees, including Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei, who [left the company]() because of differences over its direction after the then-nonprofit accepted $1 billion in funding from Microsoft. The super PAC Anthropic is now pouring money into, Public First Action, was formed along similar lines, with the ostensible bipartisan mission of preventing political power from being concentrated in OpenAI. Per the *NYT*, it will operate as a "dark money" nonprofit, which allows it to air political ads without disclosing its donors. One candidate it will be supporting is Senator Marsha Blackburn (TN-R), a vocal AI critic who's running for state governor. The Anthropic-backed group is going up against Leading the Future, an anti-regulation super PAC backed by OpenAI leaders and investors, including Andreessen Horowitz. It has [reportedly raised over $100 million](), though it's only publicly disclosed half that amount. It's a bold and risky escalation by Anthropic that could land it in the crosshairs of powerful enemies. As the reporting notes, OpenAI is in the good graces of the Trump administration, with the company's president being a [top donor to the one in the Oval Office](). OpenAI is pro-deregulation, and so is Trump. Anthropic and Amodei, by contrast, have been [blasted by figures in the administration]() for [opposing Trump's proposed suspension]() on states passing their own AI laws, earning accusations of "fear-mongering." Anthropic's announcement parted with what could be interpreted as a thinly-veiled dig at OpenAI, which converted itself into a for-profit corporation despite being originally formed as an altruist nonprofit. "The companies building AI have a responsibility to help ensure the technology serves the public good, not just their own interests," it read. **More on AI:** [*OpenAI Fires Top Safety Exec Who Opposed ChatGPT’s “Adult Mode”*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()