On February 28, 2026, the ChatGPT mobile application experienced unprecedented user loss in the U.S. market due to news of a cooperation agreement between OpenAI and the U.S. Department of Defense (formerly known as the War Department). According to Sensor Tower monitoring data, the number of daily uninstalls of ChatGPT increased by 295% compared to the previous day, far exceeding the average of 9% over the past 30 days. At the same time, one-star ratings on the App Store surged by 775% on Saturday, while five-star ratings dropped by 50%, reflecting strong consumer resistance to the military use of AI technology.

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While OpenAI was caught in a public relations crisis, its competitor Anthropic experienced explosive growth with the Claude model. Anthropic publicly stated that it had refused to cooperate with the Department of Defense due to concerns about AI being used for surveillance and the safety of autonomous weapons. This stance quickly translated into market benefits: Claude's downloads increased by 51% on February 28 and successfully topped the free app rankings on the U.S. App Store on March 2, jumping more than 20 positions from a week earlier.

Third-party institution Appfigures confirmed that Claude's daily average downloads have exceeded ChatGPT for the first time, and it is leading in six overseas countries including Canada and Germany. Similarweb data shows that Claude's downloads in the United States over the past week have reached 20 times the level of January. Although analysts point out that the growth may be driven by multiple factors, the divergent approaches of OpenAI and Anthropic regarding defense security cooperation have clearly triggered a global re-evaluation of "technical ethics" and "developer positions" among AI users.