Elon Musk admitted he was "clearly wrong" about Anthropic and called it the current leader in AI
He said he would not use his position to unfairly harm Anthropic despite competing with it through xAI
Musk did not explain what prompted his public reversal after years of criticism
Elon Musk publicly reversed his long-held criticism of Anthropic. Late Thursday, in a post on X, he praised the AI company, saying it is "obviously currently the leader in AI" and that no competitor has released a model matching its Mythos and Fable AI models.
The comments mark a striking turnaround from one of the artificial intelligence industry's most prominent rivals. Musk has been a vocal critic of Anthropic.
"I was clearly wrong about Anthropic. They are obviously currently the leader in AI. No company has released a model as good as Mythos/Fable and they will undoubtedly have Mythos 2 ready soon," Musk wrote.
1 June 2026
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Later in the same post, he also sought to address speculation that he might use his position as a competitor to harm Anthropic, writing that he would "never cut them off in a way that hurt them badly, even as a competitor," before adding, "That's not my style."
Subsequently, to support his claim, he pointed to Tesla's decision to make its patents open source and open its Supercharger network to rival automakers, as well as SpaceX's practice of launching competing satellite systems without raising prices or imposing unfair terms on rivals.
He also said that his fiercest critics retain access to X, the platform he owns. "Even my worst enemies can attack me on this platform," he wrote. Musk did not say what prompted the unprecedented change in his stance, as he has previously clashed with Anthropic over AI safety approaches and business practices.
Major AI companies, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Musk's own xAI, have been aggressively competing to introduce increasingly capable models. Anthropic's Mythos and Fable series has drawn significant attention in recent months.
Nonetheless, Musk's remarks come at a time when competition among leading AI companies is intensifying rapidly.
While the reason behind the change in his stance remains unclear, the endorsement underscores how quickly perceptions can shift in an industry where advances in AI capabilities are rapidly reshaping the competitive landscape.
