Top AI Tools | Home | Advertise

OpenAI vs Anthropic

The Race to Control the Future of Large Language Models

As AI goes mainstream, two companies are shaping the future more than anyone else: OpenAI and Anthropic.

Both were born from the same place—concern over how AI might be built and used. But they’ve taken very different paths. One powers ChatGPT. The other powers Claude. One is partnered with Microsoft. The other with Amazon and Google.

Here’s how OpenAI and Anthropic stack up in the race for LLM dominance.

Founding Stories

OpenAI

• Founded: 2015

• Founders: Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, others

• Initial Mission: Open, safe AGI for all

• Pivotal Moment: Pivoted to “capped-profit” in 2019 and accepted $1B from Microsoft

• Flagship Product: ChatGPT (180M+ users, GPT-4)

Anthropic

• Founded: 2021

• Founders: Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei (ex-OpenAI)

• Reason for Leaving OpenAI: Disagreements over safety, commercial pressure

• Funding: $7.3B+ from Amazon, Google, Spark Capital, others

• Flagship Product: Claude (Claude 3.5 Opus, Sonnet, Haiku)

Core Products and LLMs

OpenAI Strengths:

• Ecosystem dominance (ChatGPT, API, Azure, Microsoft Copilot)

• Best general-purpose performance (GPT-4o)

• Ubiquitous integrations (Zapier, Canva, Slack, etc.)

Anthropic Strengths:

• Industry-best context window (200K+ tokens)

• Trusted by enterprises focused on AI safety

• More explainable/transparent architecture (Constitutional AI)

Monetization Strategies

OpenAI

• ChatGPT Plus ($20/month)

• API usage (token-based)

• Enterprise + team plans

• Embedded via Microsoft Copilot (Office 365, Teams, Azure)

Anthropic

• Claude API (via Amazon Bedrock + their own platform)

• Claude Pro ($20/month)

• Partner integrations (Slack, Notion AI, etc.)

• Enterprise model via Google Cloud + AWS

OpenAI has a broader consumer footprint; Anthropic is winning quietly in enterprise and developer circles.

Key Differences

Recent Milestones

• OpenAI

  • GPT-4o launch (May 2024): Faster, multimodal, real-time

  • Custom GPTs ecosystem expanding

  • $2B+ ARR and rising

• Anthropic

  • Claude 3.5 Opus released (June 2024): Outperforms GPT-4 in many evals

  • Raised $7B+ in under 2 years

  • Claude integrated into Slack, Notion, DuckDuckGo, and more

What’s Next

• OpenAI is focused on:

  • Assistant-style interfaces

  • Multimodal integration

  • Dominating every consumer touchpoint via ChatGPT and Copilot

• Anthropic is focused on:

  • Long-context enterprise agents

  • Trust, safety, and interpretability

  • Owning the infrastructure behind LLMs (via AWS & Bedrock)

What You Can Learn

• Early differentiation (OpenAI = speed; Anthropic = safety) drives long-term positioning

• API-first businesses can scale without consumer traffic—if the model quality delivers

• Partnerships matter: Microsoft vs Amazon + Google is more than funding—it’s distribution power

• You don’t need to be first, just trusted

Join Tens of Thousands Founders, Creators, and Builders

Get the top AI tools, side hustles, and comparisons — in your inbox every Tuesday.

👉 Subscribe to Latestly AI

Marco Fazio Editor,
Latestly AI,
Forbes 30 Under 30

We hope you enjoyed this Latestly AI edition.
📧 Got an AI tool for us to review or do you want to collaborate?
Send us a message and let us know!

Was this edition forwarded to you? Sign up here

 Top AI Tools | Home | Advertise