The news: Hurdles are emerging at OpenAI over its Department of Defense (DoD) agreement, key staff members’ departure, and Anthropic’s revenue growth.

• Recent company departures include researcher Zoë Hitzig, who referred to “deep reservations” around OpenAI’s advertising, saying it “creates a potential for manipulating users” in an essay she wrote for The New York Times.
• OpenAI’s head of robotics Caitlin Kalinowski also resigned, citing concerns about how the DoD deal was announced without defined guardrails.

In addition, Anthropic’s finances and user count are surging, though losses over its blacklisting by the Pentagon could affect growth.

• OpenAI surpassed $25 billion in annualized revenues as of February, up 17% from the end of 2025, a source told The Information.
• Meanwhile, Anthropic’s annualized revenues recently topped $19 billion, up 36% from just two weeks ago.

Zooming out: When OpenAI picked up a DoD contract just days after Anthropic refused to change its ethical stance at the government’s request, many users uninstalled ChatGPT and started using Anthropic’s Claude in protest.

The DoD controversy may not inflict lasting damage to OpenAI’s user numbers and growth—consumers and advertisers have historically initiated boycotts of platforms over issues with parent company actions, but they aren’t always permanent.

What could be more lasting is a negative public perception of OpenAI’s brand. That could stunt its growth and mar its reputation long term, which might pose problems with gaining public support for the data centers OpenAI wants to build to support future AI infrastructure.

Why it matters: As AI platforms become entrenched in marketing stacks, the public opinion of those platforms becomes part of a brand’s own reputation.

• AI partner choices could represent stances. If public perception of OpenAI deteriorates, marketers relying on its tools could face reputational spillover.
• Consumer sentiment may shift quickly. Even if boycotts are temporary, short-term migration to alternatives like Anthropic show that brand trust is fragile and that loyalty to AI firms is low.

Implications for marketers: Infrastructure hurdles and company scrutiny could slow innovation.

• If AI infrastructure expansion faces resistance, it could affect model availability, pricing, or development, which could, in turn, slow AI-powered workflows.
• High-profile resignations and DoD concerns may reinforce anxieties about user manipulation and corporate transparency—concerns that marketers are already navigating in an era of uncertain consumer trust in AI.

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