Obscure App Suddenly Surges to Become Number One Ranked

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - The Claude by Anthropic application has suddenly become well-known. The free application rocketed to the top position on Apple’s ranking for the United States on Saturday, 28 February at local time.

The ranking is rather surprising considering that just a month earlier, on 30 January 2026, Claude was still at position 131. Its ranking has also been quite volatile throughout February, with ChatGPT dominating the top of the free applications list.

Claude then took over the top position and knocked ChatGPT down to second place. Google’s AI application, Gemini, sits at fourth place.

Anthropic has indeed quickly captured the attention of mobile users. CNBC International noted that the number of its free users jumped by over 60% since January, and daily registrations tripled since November.

Additionally, Anthropic’s paid customers have also experienced growth exceeding twofold during the year.

Anthropic’s achievement comes as the company faces sharp criticism from the Trump administration, including efforts to block the adoption of its technology by government agencies.

Previously, Anthropic was known to refuse to use its models for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons.

President Trump also criticised Anthropic’s supporters, referring to the imposition of compliance with the service terms rather than the US Constitution.

“The left-wing zealots at Anthropic made a big mistake by trying to force the Department of War and forcing them to comply with their Terms of Service instead of our Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, quoted on Monday, 2 March 2026.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth said he requested that Anthropic be labelled as a supply chain risk to national security, so that no defence contractors would use tools from the company.

Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei called on the government to reconsider its position given the value provided by the company’s technology.

“It is the prerogative of the department to choose contractors that align with their vision. However, given the substantial value that Anthropic’s technology provides to the armed forces, we hope they will reconsider,” he explained.