By Hadas Gold, NCS
(NCS) — The AI firm Anthropic was doubtless not in the public lexicon only a month in the past. But it is now.
The AI firm has lengthy been identified inside tech circles for its popular Claude AI assistant and coding instruments. But a whirlwind sequence of occasions in February thrust the firm into the public eye greater than ever. Case in level: Anthropic’s Claude app dethroned OpenAI’s ChatGPT to assert the prime spot in Apple’s iPhone App Store over the weekend.
The elevated visibility comes as the firm has been locked in a excessive-stakes public feud with the Pentagon over its security guardrails. But even in the weeks earlier than, updates to its Claude device stoked concerns about AI’s influence on the software program trade, sending shockwaves by means of Wall Street. And in early February, Anthropic took its most pointed and public jab at its chief rival, OpenAI, during the Super Bowl, considered one of the most-watched occasions on tv.
It’s shaping as much as be a formative time for the firm, however its Claude assistant nonetheless has an extended method to go to catch as much as ChatGPT in public recognition.
Claude’s rise
In early February, Claude was round quantity 42 on the Apple App Store’s listing of the most popular free iPhone apps. It surged to primary by Saturday, the day after the Pentagon deemed Anthropic a “supply chain risk” and President Donald Trump ordered the federal authorities to cease utilizing the firm’s merchandise. ChatGPT is at the moment the prime free app in the Google Play app retailer for Android units, though Claude isn’t far behind in fourth place.
Some confirmed help for Claude in the actual world as properly: Encouraging messages like “Thank you” coated the sidewalks exterior of Anthropic’s San Francisco places of work in current days, in keeping with photos staff posted on social media.
Other individuals despatched OpenAI, which announced a deal with the Pentagon late Friday, a a lot completely different message. Phrases similar to “do the right thing” and “please stand up for civil liberties” have been scribbled on the sidewalk exterior its places of work, in keeping with San Francisco news site Mission Local.
Google searches for “Anthropic” are the highest they’ve been since the firm’s founding, in keeping with Google search trends.
As its battle with the Pentagon ramped up final week, the firm hit “an all time record for Claude sign-ups,” an Anthropic spokesperson informed NCS on Monday.
Anthropic is leaning into that focus increase with a brand new characteristic unveiled Friday that simplifies importing historical past from different AI chatbots into Claude, the firm stated. It additionally added the capacity for Claude to recollect context throughout conversations to its free tier on Monday, fairly than proscribing it to paid customers.
Even pop star Katy Perry appears to be a Claude convert.
The demand has been so excessive that Claude briefly went down on Monday morning for a lot of customers, which Anthropic attributed to “unprecedented demand for Claude over the last week.” The system was again on-line inside a number of hours.
Catching as much as ChatGPT
Anthropic’s Claude has been a Silicon Valley darling for a while and a selected favourite amongst software program engineers who depend on its coding instruments. Yet it’s struggled to attain the mainstream attraction of rival ChatGPT, which lately surpassed 900 million weekly customers. And Claude nonetheless has an extended method to go by some estimates.
Web analytics firm Similarweb signifies that ChatGPT’s web site frequently hits greater than 30 million weekly guests in comparison with Claude’s 3 million – and that features throughout this previous week. Statcounter, one other internet analytics firm, additionally found in June that 79.8% of web site referrals from chatbots got here from ChatGPT, whereas solely 0.5% got here from Claude.
There’s an analogous gulf in app utilization; each day ChatGPT utilization is normally north of 20 million, whereas Claude’s is lower than 2 million, in keeping with Similarweb. However, Claude’s each day app downloads doubled final week in comparison with the week earlier than, Similarweb discovered, which may result in a rise in each day utilization.
ChatGPT was a shock hit when it launched in late 2022 and is largely credited with popularizing the shift to AI chatbots. But Claude’s newfound consideration and quickly evolving enterprise instruments may sign an inflection level for the firm made up of OpenAI expats.
On Monday night, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to acknowledge a few of the blowback to his firm, saying extra changes of their contract with the Pentagon that he stated assist defend guardrails round the doable use of their AI system in the mass surveillance of US residents.
“One thing I think I did wrong: we shouldn’t have rushed to get this out on Friday. The issues are super complex, and demand clear communication,” Altman wrote on X. “We were genuinely trying to de-escalate things and avoid a much worse outcome, but I think it just looked opportunistic and sloppy.”
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.