The 2026 NFL Super Bowl not only witnessed the Seattle Seahawks' championship victory but also highlighted an intense advertising battle among AI giants. This wave of pervasive AI commercials even overshadowed the on-field competition, leading many to dub this year's event the "AI Bowl."

As a premier global commercial event, the Super Bowl has become an unofficial American holiday, attracting over 100 million viewers annually, with this year's audience projected to exceed 130 million. Given the U.S. population of 340 million, this means nearly 40% of Americans tuned in to the championship game. Its massive viewership is comparable only to China's Spring Festival Gala, earning the Super Bowl the nickname "America's Spring Gala."

Although the Super Bowl's influence remains largely confined to North America, it holds the title of the world's most commercially valuable sports event, representing an ultimate example of monetizing viewership. Annual broadcast rights alone generate over $10 billion. A new 11-year broadcasting agreement signed in 2023 totals more than $110 billion.

Due to the staggering licensing fees, major television networks jointly signed the contract, taking turns to host the event. These exorbitant broadcasting costs are naturally offset by equally high advertising fees. This year, NBC charged $8 million for a 30-second ad slot during the Super Bowl, with premium time slots exceeding $10 million.

Compared to the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl's advertising value is highly concentrated in the U.S. market. As the world's largest consumer market, only well-funded corporate giants can afford to advertise on this premium platform, spending tens of millions to reach 130 million American TV viewers.

With the technology sector leading the U.S. economy, an increasing number of tech companies have collectively launched intensive ad campaigns during the Super Bowl in recent years, making the event a barometer of American tech trends. If the 2022 Super Bowl was dominated by cryptocurrency, the 2026 edition was entirely illuminated by AI giants.

The saturation of AI advertisements drew complaints from viewers. One viewer named Sara expressed on social media, "The AI ads are driving me crazy; this year's commercials are terrible." This sentiment was widespread, with many on X sharing similar frustrations. Before the first quarter ended, Anthropic's Claude had already aired two ads, indicating an investment of at least $16 million.

Media reports indicate that the average cost of a 30-second ad slot during this year's Super Bowl was $8 million, with prime slots exceeding $10 million. NBC, the broadcaster, revealed that 5 to 10 ad slots sold for over $10 million each. This suggests that AI companies collectively invested hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in advertising to capture American viewers' attention.

Statistics show that out of the 66 ad slots during NBC's Super Bowl broadcast, 15 were dedicated to AI companies, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total. Industry giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, as well as startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, and GenSpark, spent heavily to showcase their presence to the American audience.

The density of AI-related ads throughout the game recalled the 2022 Super Bowl, which was dominated by cryptocurrency companies. That year, crypto firms splurged on ads, only for the market to crash months later, resulting in massive investor losses and the exposure of FTX as a major fraud. Since then, the Super Bowl has not accepted cryptocurrency advertisements.

This advertising blitz has raised concerns among industry insiders. An analysis in Slate's tech column noted that it evokes memories of the dot-com bubble in 2000, when over a dozen companies like Pets.com and Computer.com aggressively advertised during the Super Bowl before rapidly collapsing. History appears to be repeating itself: when an industry collectively rushes to the Super Bowl, it often signals an impending bubble burst.

Notably, this AI advertising frenzy occurred after major AI tech stocks plummeted last week—Alphabet (Google's parent company), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta saw sell-offs after announcing significant increases in AI-related capital expenditures. Incomplete statistics indicate that these four giants plan to invest up to $650 billion in data centers and computing power this year.

Veteran investor George Noble wrote on X yesterday, "When an entire industry flocks to the most expensive advertising real estate on Earth, it's not a buy signal; it's a signal to carefully consider what comes next."

The most striking aspect of the AI ad war was Anthropic's targeted attack on OpenAI. Anthropic launched a series of ads titled "Betrayal," "Deception," "Treachery," and "Breach," with a unified theme: AI is being polluted by ads, but Claude is not.

One of the most memorable ads, "Betrayal," featured a slender young man doing pull-ups in a park, asking a muscular man for advice on developing six-pack abs. The muscular man began giving advice in a robotic tone but abruptly shifted to promoting "StepBoost Max height-increasing insoles"—"allowing shorter individuals to stand tall."

The ad concluded with the tagline: "Ads are invading AI, but Claude won't." It then cut to Anthropic's slogan, accompanied by Dr. Dre's "What's the Difference" for added impact and humor. Many viewers speculated that the "weakling" character resembled OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, suggesting intentional mockery.

Another ad, "Deception," was even more memorable. A woman sought advice from an AI consultant on improving her business plan. The AI assistant initially provided positive feedback and tailored suggestions but suddenly pivoted to promoting an unrelated loan product, disrupting the conversation in an absurd manner.

Although these ads did not name names, it was clear whom they targeted. Just two weeks prior, OpenAI announced an advertising plan to test ad features in ChatGPT's free version and low-cost ChatGPT Go subscription. While OpenAI promised that ads would not influence AI results, the move sparked controversy.

Ironically, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stated in 2023 that embedding ads in AI was a "last resort" business model, but now he appears to have few alternatives. Clearly, OpenAI faces immense performance pressure, necessitating the introduction of ads to boost revenue.

As a direct competitor, Anthropic seized this opportunity, publicly committing to keeping Claude ad-free permanently. Anthropic emphasized, "Making Claude a truly useful assistant is incompatible with an ad-based business model. We want Claude to act unequivocally in users' interests. Our business model is straightforward: generating revenue through enterprise contracts and paid subscriptions, then reinvesting in improving Claude."

It is worth noting that Anthropic and OpenAI share a history of rivalry. Anthropic's founding team primarily consists of former OpenAI members who left due to disagreements with Altman's product and commercial direction. Although Anthropic's user base, funding scale, and corporate valuation are lower than OpenAI's, it has become a major player in the AI industry with unique competitive advantages.

The two companies are not only competing for individual users and enterprise clients but are also poised to vie for funding through initial public offerings (IPOs). OpenAI and Anthropic's latest funding valuations exceed $500 billion and $350 billion, respectively, with both likely to go public in the second half of this year. At this critical juncture, Anthropic's aggressive attack on OpenAI's ad revenue plan clearly has strategic implications.

Anthropic's ability to commit to an ad-free model stems from its fundamentally different business approach. Although it has only 30 million direct active users, Anthropic achieved an annualized revenue of over $9 billion last year, representing astonishing growth. Eighty percent of this revenue comes from more than 300,000 enterprise clients, with Claude Code alone generating over $1 billion. Anthropic projects annualized revenue could reach $26 billion this year.

In contrast, OpenAI boasts 800-900 million weekly active users and reported revenue exceeding $13 billion last year. However, it heavily relies on individual subscriptions, necessitating ad monetization for free users. Moreover, compared to OpenAI's aggressive expansion and investment plans, its revenue growth appears inadequate. Its computing power procurement agreement with Oracle alone amounts to over $60 billion annually, while the Stargate supercomputing project with SoftBank requires a $500 billion investment over the next four years.

Anthropic's provocative ads prompted a strong rebuttal from OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman published a lengthy post on X, calling Anthropic's ads "blatantly dishonest" and "deceptive."

"I wonder why Anthropic would employ such blatantly dishonest tactics. Our most important principle regarding ads is that we would never do this; we would obviously never run ads as depicted by Anthropic. We're not stupid; we know users would reject that," Altman stated.

He argued that Anthropic's use of a deceptive ad to criticize theoretically deceptive ads—which do not exist—constitutes a "double standard." He emphasized that OpenAI pledges to clearly label ads at the bottom of responses and ensure they never influence ChatGPT's content.

Altman's counterattack did not stop there. He criticized Anthropic's business model as "offering expensive products to the wealthy," mocking that ChatGPT's free users in Texas alone outnumber Claude's total U.S. user base, implying OpenAI deals with "a different scale of challenges."

Compared to Anthropic's fiery ads, other AI giants focused on promoting their unique features and advantages.

OpenAI's 60-second Super Bowl ad showcased Codex, an AI coding and agent tool, demonstrating how AI empowers daily life and innovation with the theme "Anyone can build anything." It emphasized Codex's shift from "answering questions" to "acting on your behalf."

OpenAI's Chief Marketing Officer Kate Rouch stated, "We are living in an era where people can build things previously out of reach. This message is about engagement, agency, and using these tools to accomplish what was once impossible." Since August 2025, Codex usage has grown 20-fold, with weekly growth of about 10%, and one million people used it last month to build applications and websites.

Meta promoted its AI smart glasses collaboration with Oakley during the Super Bowl, emphasizing the "sports intelligence" concept. The ad featured former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, director Spike Lee, and influencer iShowSpeed, positioning the glasses as practical tools for athletes and creators rather than tech gimmicks. This marks Meta's second year promoting Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses at the Super Bowl.

Amazon's ad took a dark humor approach, starring action film star Chris Hemsworth, satirizing fears about AI. The upgraded Alexa+ was depicted as attempting to harm its owner—closing a garage door on his head and shutting the pool cover while he swam. This self-deprecating marketing conveyed that Amazon understands concerns but assures Alexa+ is safe and useful. Notably, Alexa+ has been in early access for over a year, with the official version launching nationwide weeks before the Super Bowl.

Google's 60-second ad continued its heartfelt style, telling the story of a mother and son using Gemini AI to envision and design their new home. By uploading photos of an empty room and using simple prompts, they transformed it into a personalized space. The ad highlighted Google's image-generation model Nano Banana Pro, which users globally employed to edit over 5 billion images last year.

Microsoft's ad was comparatively dull, focusing on traditional data analytics with the theme "Simplify Excel data analysis with Copilot." The underlying goal was clear: Microsoft 365 has 450 million paid users, but only 15 million subscribe to Copilot, a mere 3.3% conversion rate. Microsoft hopes to further promote Copilot to enterprise users through this ad.

Moreover, the Super Bowl ad was not newly produced but an extension of an existing campaign, reflecting Microsoft's decade-long technical partnership with the NFL. This somewhat uninspiring ad also highlighted that Microsoft's AI products are almost exclusively enterprise-focused, with minimal presence in the consumer AI market.

Beyond the AI frenzy, another highlight of this year's Super Bowl ad war was the appearance of Chinese smart home company Dreame, becoming the second Chinese enterprise to advertise during the event, following Temu.

In 2023 and 2024, Temu, the cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, not only became the first Chinese company to advertise during the Super Bowl but also one of the biggest spenders. In 2023, Temu debuted with two ads themed "Shop like a billionaire." In 2024, it aired six ads—three during the game and two post-game—totaling over $42 million.

This saturation strategy proved effective. Research firm Zappi found that while 21% of viewers "hated" Temu's ads (rating them 4 or below on a 10-point scale), Temu successfully achieved its goal: viral buzz. Social media was flooded with discussions about Temu, and headlines questioned, "What is Temu?"—exactly the outcome Temu desired.

Performance data confirmed the return on Super Bowl ad investment. Temu's U.S. monthly active users surged from 13 million in early 2023 to 70 million in 2024, capturing nearly 20% of the U.S. market for affordable small goods. Of course, beyond the Super Bowl, Temu invested nearly $3 billion in U.S. digital marketing in 2023, becoming one of the largest online advertisers in the country.

Clearly, Temu's aggressive advertising blitz has set a precedent for Chinese companies entering the U.S. market. This year, Dreame became the second Chinese company to appear on the Super Bowl stage. Its ad employed a "Transformers"-style creative approach, showcasing Dreame's robotic vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers, and the green supercar concept Nebula transforming into robots and passing a fireball in a sci-fi sequence.

The ad reached over 130 million American consumers during the Super Bowl, aiming to demonstrate Dreame's ambition to transition from a home appliance manufacturer to a tech ecosystem player. Dreame's official statement emphasized that the flagship Nebula concept car's prominent international debut reflects the company's "determination to dominate the U.S. market."

Dreame's core business remains robotic vacuums. IDC data shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, the top five global players in the robotic vacuum market were Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame, Xiaomi, and Narwal. These five Chinese companies hold nearly 70% of the global market share, with Dreame ranking third worldwide with a 12.4% share.

At January's CES in Las Vegas, Dreame was highlighted by multiple media outlets as one of the most "audacious," largest, and most talked-about Chinese brands. Its exhibition theme, "All Dreams in One Dreame," showcased its transition from a single cleaning appliance brand to a whole-house smart ecosystem, expanding into home appliances, yard care, personal grooming, and even electric supercars, drawing the highest foot traffic in the central hall.

Following its multi-million-dollar Super Bowl investment, Dreame attracted attention from U.S. media and social media. However, amid the overwhelming presence of AI ads, Dreame's commercial did not become a hot topic like Temu's in previous years.

U.S. media coverage of Dreame's ad focused on its bold cross-sector strategy, highlighting that this "robotic vacuum manufacturer aims to build the world's fastest car," viewing it as a signal of Chinese companies entering the mainstream U.S. market.

Yet skepticism persists. Media and viewers question why a Chinese smart home company would spend tens of millions of dollars in the U.S. to promote an electric car slated for a 2027 launch that, due to tariff barriers, may not even enter the U.S. market.

To realize its expansion ambitions, Dreame is aggressively diversifying—from robotic vacuums to major appliances, drones, and smart lawn mowers, covering nearly all smart home products. Additionally, Dreame announced plans last year to venture into car manufacturing, aiming to launch an ultra-luxury electric supercar rivaling Bugatti Veyron by 2027. It even plans to develop an OTA travel platform to "break Ctrip's monopoly."

Perhaps Dreame's goal is to gain attention in the U.S. market and capital markets through the Super Bowl. After all, as founder Yu Hao stated, Dreame's dream is to "create the first company in human history to reach a $100 trillion market capitalization." Achieving this vision necessitates engaging the world's largest market, the U.S., and securing continuous funding.

Yu Hao boldly claimed on social media that while Elon Musk and Jensen Huang represent the current generation of entrepreneurs, he belongs to the future generation, capable of elevating corporate valuation by an order of magnitude. Although this statement drew ridicule, he emphasized that it is a long-term goal to be achieved over the next 20 years, not a short-term marketing gimmick.