On Sunday, February 8, Super Bowl ads became a battlefield for Tech giants Anthropic, and OpenAI, as the first spent $8 million on high profile marketing to claim its dominance as a response to ChatGPT testing ads.
The clash between Silicon Valley’s top AI companies is now commercial, not technological.
On Monday, OpenAI announced it will be officially rolling advertisements within ChatGPT. In response, Anthropic completely redirected the sentiment of its Super Bowl ad, changing the copy from its original format “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
To the new copy, “There is a time and place for ads. Your conversations with AI should not be one of them.”
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Each company approached the Super Bowl differently, one using humor to highlight principles, another leaning on brand awareness and product reach.
They do, however, meet in the middle where both AI models are marketed through different visions that could help them dominate the AI market, with both AI giants having a sole goal to achieve: who can go high before going public with their initial public offering (IPO) in 2026.
Two Visions, One Goal.
Anthropic and OpenAI are competing aggressively, but with contrasting strategies. February 4, the Claude-parent said its AI model will remain ad-free, framing it as a “genuinely helpful assistant for work and for deep thinking.”
The OpenAI rival spent millions on its Anthropic Super Bowl ad campaigns, roughly $8 million for a 30-second spot, according to NBCUniversal.
Super Bowl ads portray how AI’s real values have gone twisted – jabbing at OpenAI – when mixed with marketing, with the same tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” Anthropic’s humor, despite not citing names, clearly targeted OpenAI’s plan for monetized chats, presenting Claude as principled example, and positioning the other company as desperate to win.
Standing on the other side of the field, OpenAI already indicated it would introduce ads to ChatGPT to fund broader access, before Anthropic changed its ad’s tagline. Its hybrid structure of a non-profit controlling a for-profit Public Benefit Corporation is now OpenAI’s dual mission. The GPT-parent is focused on raising capital while “ensuring AGI benefits humanity.”
Ads are now being tested on Free and Go users in the US, with the OpenAI SuperBowl ad complementing campaigns for Codex, the company’s coding product.
Meanwhile, OpenAI insists that ads remain “separate and clearly labeled” and “do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives you,” carefully avoiding sensitive topics like health, politics, or mental health.
Anthropic and OpenAI are asserting dominance before their IPO and are both benefiting from their aggressive marketing campaigns to gain supremacy.
Each is spending millions, Anthropic on SuperBowl advertisements with its Super Bowl ads 2025 was the company’s first major TV campaign, targeting an audience of roughly 120 million.
OpenAI on product visibility to cover Super Bowl advertising, to shape public and investor perception, while advancing a narrative of AI superiority.
Between Aggression and Opportunity
Anthropic put Claude as principled and ad-free but also is equally motivated by securing corporate clients and market share. The Anthropic Super Bowl ad campaign delivered humor infused with an undertone of exaggeration, but behind the scenes, the stakes are really about finances and strategies
OpenAI SuperBowl ad efforts back then aimed to reinforce brand trust before introducing paid features.
The aggressive marketing they are seeking is a kind of desperation, yet a fiercely strategic one. Both companies are competing to capture investors’ sentiment and position themselves for their public listings.
Millions have been spent, SuperBowl advertisers and last year’s 2025 Superbowl ads did not reach the same level of hype as 2026. This year, it’s all about dominating attention during one of the US’ most watched television events of the year – where the cost of a SuperBowl ad can reach $8 million or more.
Marketing Wisdom or Corporate Theater?
There’s no tangible way of determining whether both companies are struggling in silence, but the IPO ticking bomb is lingering in the background, silently torturing. However, the criticism Anthropic has made of OpenAI for selling out is debatable.
Anthropic Super Bowl ads were a carefully dramatic act of contrast, considering that the Claude parent is chasing the same enterprise contracts, the same investor confidence, and the same IPO window as OpenAI.
Finally, the real question may not be which chatbot is better, but which company convinces investors first. With millions invested in Super Bowl ads and the public spectacle of AI debate, the winner may be determined less by technology than by narrative, timing, and marketing flair.
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