Dario Amodei, the chief executive of Anthropic, was becoming a nuisance for his fellow technology industry executives.
Anthropic and OpenAI, the leading artificial intelligence companies, were lobbying the White House to prevent some A.I. models from being developed and widely shared because, they argued, they were too dangerous. But companies like Nvidia and Microsoft saw those A.I. models as a big business opportunity.
At the end of July, Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang, then Nvidia’s chief executive, intervened. They emailed each other drafts of a letter saying those A.I. models should remain open, according to four people familiar with the discussions. When they asked other technology executives whether they’d like to sign on, two dozen companies quickly agreed before the letter became public. Over the next week, 200 more companies — including a chastened OpenAI — signed onto the letter.
Dr. Amodei refused.
Dr. Amodei has for years exasperated his peers with warnings about extreme risks of A.I., even as his company has built some of the most powerful A.I. systems in the world. Frustration has turned to hostility as Anthropic leaped into the lead in A.I. development, experienced stunning revenue growth and moved toward what is likely to be one of the largest initial public offerings ever later this month.
Along the way, Anthropic — which has cultivated an image as a company that tries to do the right thing — has also gained a reputation for playing hardball with customers and competitors. It has cut some off from its service and lobbied against other companies’s free alternatives to its A.I.
Over the last year, other technology companies and investors have organized to push back, according to more than 20 people in the technology industry, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve their relationships with Anthropic.
