Why Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wanted OpenAI to stop taking Peter Thiel’s money

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, once urged OpenAI to cease receiving funds from billionaire investor Peter Thiel. The reason behind his stance was Thiel's $1.25 million contribution to support Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, which Amodei deemed unworthy of moral support. At the time, Amodei was a few months into his role at OpenAI, where he led the safety team.

He shared his thoughts on the company's internal messaging platform, as reported by The New York Times. Years later, Thiel's money did find its way to Amodei when Thiel's venture capital firm, Founders Fund, invested in Anthropic in February of this year, co-leading a $30 billion funding round that valued the company at $380 billion.

The firm also contributed approximately $1.25 billion of its own capital, and Thiel is also an investor in OpenAI, giving both labs a vested interest. Amodei's stance on political funding initially led to his departure from OpenAI in December 2020, when he, along with several colleagues, founded Anthropic four weeks later. Despite the shift in his views on political funding, Amodei's company, Anthropic, now prepares to go public on Nasdaq later this month, alongside other investors including Thiel, showcasing the complex nature of these relationships in the tech industry.