Elon Musk has endorsed a theory comparing AI giant Anthropic to the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
He has agreed that the AI company and its CEO Dario Amodei, give off distinct "Sam Bankman-Fried vibes."
"FTX energy"
Tech commentator Lukas (@hyperonline) posted a detailed thread analyzing why Anthropic’s corporate persona makes him uncomfortable.
He has explicitly compared the AI firm to SBF’s fraudulent crypto empire.
"I’ve been trying to understand why Anthropic puts me off (even though I love their models), and I think it’s this: Anthropic has FTX energy," Lukas wrote.
Both companies were built on the philosophy of effective altruism (EA). This is the movement that heavily influenced Bankman-Fried.
Lukas noted that both firms heavily rely on "we’re the RESPONSIBLE ones" marketing, "wholesome chungus branding," and "genius nerd" founders to build public trust.
Notably, Bankman-Fried was an early backer of Anthropic. He invested $500 million into the AI startup in 2022. Later, it turned out that these were stolen FTX customer funds.
"The whole thing feels calculated and insincere," Lukas explained, describing the vibe as feeling like "some sort of hyperpredator" in disguise.
Of course, it should be noted that Musk is the founder of xAI, the artificial intelligence startup behind the Grok language model. Hence, he is directly attacking one of his biggest rivals in the AI arms race.
Meanwhile, pop star Katy Perry recently made waves by publicly showing her support for Anthropic. On Feb. 28, Perry took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a screenshot of herself purchasing a $214.99 annual subscription to Claude Pro.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
