Anthropic sees consumer surge after Pentagon fallout

Anthropic is experiencing a significant surge in consumer growth following a fallout with the Pentagon (the U.S. Department of Defense). The tension escalated during ‘tense negotiations’ after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei refused to allow the government to use its AI systems for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons. Following this refusal, the AI model provider was marked as a ‘supply-chain risk’ by the government. However, this stance appears to have accelerated consumer adoption of Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude, as users favor the model.

Data from app intelligence provider Appfigures and market intelligence provider Similarweb shows that Claude is gaining ground on its competitors:

• Daily downloads: Claude reached 149,000 daily downloads in the U.S. on March 2, surpassing the 124,000 recorded for ChatGPT, according to Appfigures.
• Daily active users: Claude’s daily active users on iOS and Android devices reached 11.3 million on March 2, up 183% from the start of the year when usage was around 4 million, and up from 5 million daily active users at the beginning of February, according to Similarweb.
• Market comparison: Despite Claude’s momentum, ChatGPT still dominates the market by a significant factor, recording 250.5 million daily active users on March 2 across iOS and Android.

The momentum is also reflected in web traffic and sign-ups. Similarweb reported that Claude’s web traffic grew 43% month-over-month in February, and was up 297.7% year-over-year. During the same period, ChatGPT’s web traffic dropped 6.5% month-over-month, while Gemini saw a slight bump of 2.1%. Anthropic has stated that Claude is now seeing more than 1 million sign-ups per day. The application has reached the No. 1 spot on the App Store in the U.S. and 15 other countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Switzerland, and the U.K.

Why it matters

Anthropic’s refusal to allow its AI systems to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons has driven user growth, even after the U.S. Department of Defense labeled the company a supply-chain risk. This shift suggests that corporate governance and ethical boundaries are becoming active drivers of consumer preference in the AI market.