The chatbot Claude from Anthropic appears to have gained from the heightened interest surrounding the firm’s challenging talks with the Pentagon.

As initially reported by CNBC, Claude has been ascending to the upper ranks of the free applications in Apple’s US App Store. By Saturday night, it surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT to seize the top position, a rank it continued to occupy on Sunday morning.

Data from SensorTower indicates that Claude was just outside the top 100 at the end of January, while it has maintained a presence in the top 20 for most of February. It has surged swiftly in recent days, jumping from sixth place on Wednesday, to fourth on Thursday, and then claiming first on Saturday.

A spokesperson for the company reported that new daily signups have shattered all previous records each day this week, free user registrations have risen by over 60% since January, and the number of paid subscribers has more than doubled this year.

Following Anthropic’s efforts to negotiate safeguards against the Department of Defense utilizing its AI models for extensive domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weaponry, President Donald Trump instructed federal agencies to cease using all Anthropic products, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that he is labeling the company as a supply-chain risk.

In response, OpenAI declared its own agreement with the Pentagon, which CEO Sam Altman stated includes protections related to domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.

This article was initially published on February 28, 2026. It has been revised to reflect Anthropic’s ascension to No. 1 and to incorporate the company’s growth figures.