Harder Than AGI — Dario and Sam Stand Side by Side at India AI Summit, But Refuse to Shake Hands

February 19, 2026. Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, India. At the opening ceremony of the India AI Impact Summit — the first AI summit hosted by the Global South — a historic (questionable adjective) moment unfolded. With delegates from over 100 countries watching, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attempted to take a unity photo with the titans of the AI industry.

Modi stood in the center, Google CEO Sundar Pichai to his right, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to his left. And right next to Altman stood Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. When Modi raised both hands high and called for unity, everyone clasped hands and lifted them up. Well... everyone except two people.

1. Altman and Amodei: The Most Awkward Group Photo in AI History

In the footage captured by ANI, Modi grabs the hands of the CEOs on either side and raises them high. Pichai smiles and plays along. But between Altman and Amodei, something different happened. Instead of holding each other's hands, both men clenched their fists and raised them independently.

The moment instantly took over social media. Venture capitalist Siddharth Bhatia tweeted: "When AGI? The day Dario and Sam hold hands." Justine Moore from Andreessen Horowitz captioned it: "When you're forced to do a group project with your opp."

Altman himself was refreshingly honest in a post-ceremony interview. "I didn't know what was happening. I was sort of confused, like Modi grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasn't sure what we were supposed to be doing." More like he was very sure there was one particular person he didn't want to hold hands with.

2. From OpenAI Exodus to CEO Offer Rejection: A Deep-Rooted Rivalry

To understand this level of awkwardness, you need to know their history. Dario Amodei was OpenAI's Vice President of Research. He was instrumental in developing GPT-2 and GPT-3 and was a key architect of OpenAI's early technical direction.

But in 2020-2021, as OpenAI pivoted toward prioritizing commercial interests over safety, Dario led a mass exodus alongside his sister Daniela Amodei and several senior researchers. They founded Anthropic. Essentially, he told his former boss "your approach is dangerous" and walked out the door.

The story doesn't end there. In November 2023, when OpenAI's board fired Altman, the board offered Amodei the OpenAI CEO position. He declined. Days later, Altman returned, making this episode even more legendary. Imagine standing next to the person who had the chance to take your job and turned it down. Not exactly a recipe for a comfortable handshake.

3. Super Bowl Ad War: Anthropic's Direct Hit, Just 10 Days Before the Summit

The timing couldn't have been better — or worse, depending on who you ask. Just 10 days before the India summit, on February 9, Anthropic dropped an $8 million-plus Super Bowl LX ad. The spot showed a gym-goer asking a buff trainer for advice, only to get robotic answers peppered with random shoe insole ads. The punchline: "Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude."

It was a direct shot at OpenAI, which had just announced plans to introduce ads to free ChatGPT users. Altman fired back immediately on X, calling it "clearly dishonest" and sniping that "Anthropic serves an expensive product to rich people."

According to CNBC, Anthropic saw an 11% user increase from the ad campaign. They made money and got under their rival's skin — a two-for-one deal. And then, 10 days later, the two men had to stand side by side for a photo.

In Closing: A Handshake Harder Than AGI

The India AI Impact Summit is undeniably an important milestone for global AI governance. It was the first AI summit hosted by the Global South, with over 100 countries participating to discuss AI safety and inclusive development.

But the moment people will remember most probably isn't any policy discussion — it's those few seconds when two CEOs refused to hold each other's hands. Anthropic's $380 billion valuation, the $30 billion Series G that closed just days before the summit, and both companies pushing toward IPOs. This rivalry is only getting hotter.

One social media user's comment perfectly sums up the situation: "When AI can't fix egos." It's starting to look like getting these two to shake hands might actually be harder than building AGI.