A brief but noticeable moment at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 has sparked widespread chatter online, after the CEOs of rival artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic avoided holding hands during a group photo-op.
The moment, caught on camera during a high-profile appearance alongside Narendra Modi, has since gone viral, with social media users describing it as everything from “awkward” to a symbol of an ongoing “AI cold war”.
What Happened On Stage
After the keynote session at the summit on Tuesday morning, several global tech leaders were invited on stage for a photograph with the Prime Minister. Among those present were Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and Alexandr Wang.
As the group assembled, Prime Minister Modi held the hands of the two leaders standing next to him — Sundar Pichai on one side and Sam Altman on the other — and encouraged them to raise their hands for the cameras.
That is when the moment stood out. Altman and Amodei, standing beside each other, did not follow suit. Instead of holding hands, both raised their fists in the air, avoiding physical contact altogether.
The visual, though lasting only seconds, quickly found its way onto social media timelines.
Internet Reacts: ‘Classic AI Cold War Vibes’
The clip soon began trending on X, with users dissecting the body language and drawing connections to the well-documented professional rift between the two AI leaders.
A user wrote, “Dario Amodei (Anthropic) & Sam Altman (OpenAI) straight-up skipped the hand-hold at India AI Impact Summit 2026 in Delhi. No contact. Classic AI cold war vibes: Amodei left OpenAI in ’21 over safety vs. speed clashes.”
Another user commented, “Just look at Sam altman, guy was literally hesitant.”
A third post read, “Sam Altman and Dario Amodei didn’t hold hands. Dario was a senior research leader at OpenAI before leaving in 2021 to start Anthropic, over differences around safety, governance, and commercialization pace.”
Others echoed similar sentiments:
“Sam Altman & Dario Amodei made sure that hands did not touch at Delhi AI summit,” one user wrote.
Another added, “OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei refused to hold hands during a unity photo-op with India’s PM Modi and other AI leaders at India AI Impact Summit.”
OpenAI vs Anthropic
While the moment may have appeared trivial, it touched a nerve because of the larger rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic — two companies shaping the global AI race in different ways.
OpenAI is known for rapidly deploying consumer-facing tools such as ChatGPT, prioritizing scale and widespread adoption. Anthropic, on the other hand, positions itself as a safety-first AI company, emphasizing controlled deployment and ethical guardrails, particularly through its Claude chatbot.
What Dario Amodei Has Said Earlier
Amodei, who served as Vice-President of Research at OpenAI, left the company in early 2021 to co-found Anthropic with his sister and other former OpenAI researchers.
In a 2023 interview with Fortune magazine, he openly addressed the split. “You need something in addition to just scaling the models up, which is alignment or safety. You don’t tell the models what their values are just by pouring more compute into them,” he said.
While neither Altman nor Amodei has commented on the viral moment, the clip has become a talking point — not just about body language, but about the philosophical divide shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
