Anthropic’s Claude rises to No. 2 in the App Store following Pentagon dispute
Anthropic’s chatbot Claude appears to have benefited from the attention surrounding the company’s fraught negotiations with the Pentagon.
If first reported by CNBCAs of Saturday afternoon, Claude currently ranks second among free apps in Apple’s US App Store: the number one app is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and number three is Google Gemini.
According to data from SensorTowerClaude was just outside the top 100 at the end of January and has been somewhere in the top 20 for most of February. The ranking has risen in recent days, from sixth place on Wednesday to fourth place on Thursday and second place on Saturday (today).
After Anthropic tried to negotiate safeguards that would prevent the Defense Department from using its AI models for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons, President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to stop using all Anthropic products. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he labeled the company a threat to the supply chain.
OpenAI then announced its own agreement with the Pentagon, which CEO Sam Altman claimed includes safeguards regarding domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.
