Leaked exchanges show OpenAI leadership felt "betrayed" when early investor Reid Hoffman started rival Inflection AI. This prompted them to consider asking new investors for a "soft promise" not to fund competitors, a highly unusual and restrictive term in venture capital.

The creation of talent agency CAA in 1975 by agents who defected from a larger firm mirrors the current AI landscape, where top researchers leave established labs like OpenAI to found competitors like Anthropic. This suggests that talent-driven industries consistently see cycles of unbundling led by key players.

Testimony from OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever has revealed that during the 2023 leadership crisis, a merger with top rival Anthropic was actively discussed. The potential deal, which could have installed Anthropic's CEO at the helm, highlights the deep instability at OpenAI during that period.

Top AI lab leaders, including Demis Hassabis (Google DeepMind) and Dario Amodei (Anthropic), have publicly stated a desire to slow down AI development. They advocate for a collaborative, CERN-like model for AGI research but admit that intense, uncoordinated global competition currently makes such a pause impossible.

The AI industry operates in a "press release economy" where mindshare is critical. Competitors strategically time major news, like Anthropic's massive valuation, to coincide with a rival's launch (Google's Gemini 3) to dilute media impact and ensure they remain part of the conversation.

Fears of a single AI company achieving runaway dominance are proving unfounded, as the number of frontier models has tripled in a year. Newcomers can use techniques like synthetic data generation to effectively "drink the milkshake" of incumbents, reverse-engineering their intelligence at lower costs.

A significant number of leading AI companies, such as Anthropic and XAI, were founded by executives who left larger players like OpenAI out of disagreement or rivalry. This "spite" acts as a powerful motivator, driving the creation of formidable competitors and shaping the industry's landscape.

Despite its early dominance, OpenAI's internal "Code Red" in response to competitors like Google's Gemini and Anthropic demonstrates a critical business lesson. An early market lead is not a guarantee of long-term success, especially in a rapidly evolving field like artificial intelligence.

Major AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are partnering with competing cloud and chip providers (Amazon, Google, Microsoft). This creates a complex web of alliances where rivals become partners, spreading risk and ensuring access to the best available technology, regardless of primary corporate allegiances.