Anthropic CEO once wanted OpenAI to reject Peter Thiel's funding
Dario Amodei expressed concerns over Thiel's 2016 political donations while leading the safety team at OpenAI.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously wanted OpenAI to stop accepting money from billionaire investor Peter Thiel, according to a report by the Times of India. Amodei made these remarks on the company's internal messaging app a few months into his role leading the safety team at OpenAI.
The tension arose after Thiel donated $1.25 million to support Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Amodei stated that the move made Thiel "morally worthy of condemnation" and expressed fears that the United States was drifting toward authoritarianism.
While Amodei sought to distance OpenAI from Thiel, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman defended Thiel in 2016. Altman stated on X, formerly Twitter, that Y Combinator would not fire someone for supporting a major party nominee.
Amodei eventually left OpenAI in December 2020 and founded Anthropic four weeks later. Tensions at OpenAI reportedly included disagreements over leadership roles and the management of the GPT project.
A decade after those remarks, Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, co-led a $30 billion funding round for Anthropic this year. The firm reportedly invested about $1.25 billion and holds stakes in both Anthropic and its rival, OpenAI.
Anthropic is currently preparing to go public on Nasdaq later this month.
