Awkward Viral Moment: OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs Refuse to Hold Hands at Delhi AI Summit

What was supposed to be a powerful display of global technological unity quickly turned into the internet’s favorite awkward moment. During the India AI Impact Summit 2026 at Bharat Mandapam, a simple photo opportunity inadvertently exposed the deep, underlying tensions between two of the most powerful men in artificial intelligence.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited top tech leaders to hold hands and raise them in a show of solidarity, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei conspicuously broke the chain. The viral video of their refusal to clasp hands has since set social media ablaze, with netizens dubbing the incident a brilliant visual representation of the ongoing "AI Cold War."

Fist Bump" Heard Around the World

The summit was a landmark event, positioning India as a central hub for future technology. As the keynote concluded, a powerhouse group including Google's Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Alexandr Wang, Altman, and Amodei gathered on stage.

PM Modi, standing in the center, clasped the hands of Pichai to his right and Altman to his left, raising them high. He then gestured for the rest of the tech titans to join the human chain. However, Altman and Amodei—who were standing directly next to each other—hesitated. Instead of locking fingers, both executives awkwardly raised closed fists into the air, maintaining a noticeable physical distance.

The brief but incredibly loud silence of that non-handshake was instantly clipped, shared, and analyzed by millions online.

Roots of the AI Cold War

To understand why this split-second hesitation matters, you have to look at the bitter history between the two companies. Dario Amodei isn't just a rival; he is a former insider.

Amodei previously served as the Vice President of Research at OpenAI, working closely under Altman. However, in late 2020, severe ideological disagreements regarding the pace of commercialization versus AI safety led to a massive fracture. Amodei, his sister Daniela, and a cohort of senior researchers walked out to found Anthropic in 2021. Their goal was to build a "safety-first" company, which eventually birthed the highly successful Claude chatbot.

Since then, the rivalry has only intensified. Just weeks prior to the Delhi summit, Anthropic aired aggressive Super Bowl commercials openly mocking OpenAI’s decision to introduce ads into ChatGPT. Altman fired back on X (formerly Twitter), calling the ads "dishonest" and labeling Anthropic an "authoritarian company."

Altman Speaks Out: "I Was Confused"

As the "AI Cold War" narrative took over the internet, Sam Altman attempted to do some damage control. Speaking to reporters in a closed-door session later that day, the OpenAI chief brushed off the incident as a simple misunderstanding.

"I didn't know what was happening. I was sort of confused. Modi grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing," Altman explained with a laugh.

Despite Altman's casual dismissal, the visual symbolism remains potent. As the race to build Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) accelerates, the philosophical and commercial divide between OpenAI's rapid scaling and Anthropic's cautious guardrails is wider than ever.

For now, the AI world remains cleanly split into two camps—and as the Delhi summit proved, they certainly aren't holding hands.