Super Bowl LX, airing today from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, isn’t just the biggest game in American football — it’s now the biggest stage for artificial intelligence. With 30-second ad slots averaging a record $8 million (some exceeding $10 million), AI companies have flooded the 2026 Super Bowl with campaigns that range from heartfelt to provocative, marking what many in the industry are calling the “AI Bowl.”
An estimated 130 million viewers will watch as 16 tech companies — double the tech ad spending of 2022’s “Crypto Bowl” — battle for attention during one of television’s most-watched events. Here’s every major AI commercial you need to know about.
The Anthropic vs. OpenAI Feud: The Defining Rivalry of the AI Bowl
The biggest story heading into Super Bowl LX isn’t a matchup on the field — it’s the war between Anthropic and OpenAI playing out in primetime.
Anthropic’s “A Time and a Place” Campaign
Anthropic is making its Super Bowl debut with a bold campaign titled “A Time and a Place,” featuring a 60-second pregame ad and a 30-second in-game spot. The campaign includes four provocative spots — “Betrayal,” “Deception,” “Treachery,” and “Violation” — each depicting a nightmare scenario where an AI chatbot starts giving helpful advice before abruptly pivoting to intrusive product pitches.
In “Betrayal,” a man asking for advice about his mother receives a pitch for a dating site called Golden Encounters. In “Deception,” a nervous entrepreneur pitching a business idea gets warm mentoring — until the AI swerves into a payday-loan plug. “Violation” features a young man seeking fitness advice who gets served an ad for height-boosting insoles, and “Treachery” shows a student receiving essay feedback that suddenly turns into a jewelry discount pitch.
All four spots end with the same tagline: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
The campaign, created with agency Mother and directed by Jeff Low, is a direct response to OpenAI’s January 2026 announcement that it would begin testing advertisements within free ChatGPT and ChatGPT Go ($8/month tier) in the United States. Anthropic expects the commercials to reach around 120 million people.
Sam Altman Fires Back
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman didn’t take the jabs quietly. In a post on X, he called Anthropic’s ads “dishonest” and “deceptive,” arguing they misrepresent how advertising will actually work on ChatGPT. He then took a pointed shot at Anthropic’s business model, accusing the company of serving “an expensive product to rich people” and calling Anthropic an “authoritarian company” that wants to “control what people do with AI.”
Altman defended the advertising model: “We feel strongly that we need to bring AI to billions of people who can’t pay for subscriptions,” adding that “more Texans use ChatGPT for free than total people use Claude in the U.S.” He confirmed that ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers will not see any ads.
OpenAI’s CMO Kate Rouch echoed the sentiment: “Calling ‘ads’ a betrayal when your business model is selling paid subscriptions to companies.”
OpenAI’s “Builders” Ad
OpenAI is returning to the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year with its own 60-second spot. Altman described the ad as being “about builders, and how anyone can now build anything,” celebrating the early traction of Codex, OpenAI’s AI coding agent, which has seen over 500,000 downloads since launch.
The IPO Angle
The rivalry carries stakes beyond brand perception. The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI is racing toward a public listing in Q4 2026, while Anthropic is also planning an IPO by the end of the year. OpenAI is valued at roughly $300 billion; Anthropic at around $60 billion. These Super Bowl campaigns are as much about investor attention as consumer awareness.
Google’s Emotional “New Home” Ad for Gemini
Google returns to Super Bowl LX — its fifth consecutive and 10th overall appearance — with “New Home,” a 60-second emotional spot for Gemini AI that airs during the third quarter.
Set to Randy Newman’s “Feels Like Home,” the ad follows a mother helping her young son, Ben, cope with the anxiety of moving to a new house. Using Gemini’s integration with Google Photos, she pulls up images of the new house, then uses Nano Banana Pro image editing to visualize how Ben’s room could look with his toys, bed, and even the dog’s bed arranged inside. Together, they explore the new backyard and imagine the possibilities of their new life.
Created by Google Creative Lab and directed by Park Pictures’ Daniel Mercadante, the campaign continues Google’s “A new kind of help from Google” platform. Rather than showcasing raw AI capability, Google frames Gemini as a quiet creative companion — a strategy that mirrors its iconic 2010 “Parisian Love” approach.
The broader campaign spans TV, online video, social media, out-of-home advertising, and influencer partnerships. Gemini currently has around 650 million monthly active users, closing the gap on ChatGPT’s 800 million.
Amazon’s Alexa+ Goes Dark Comedy With Chris Hemsworth
Amazon’s 60-second spot, “Alexaaaa+,” stars Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky in a hilarious take on AI paranoia. Set to INXS’s 1987 classic “Devil Inside,” the ad opens with Hemsworth casually strolling in holding a giant snake — then spiraling into wild imagined scenarios after hearing Alexa+ chatting with Pataky.
His paranoid visions include a murderous garage door attempting to decapitate him, a pool cover trapping him underwater, a giant bear greeting him at the front door, and a fireplace exploding into a fireball. Pataky tells him he’s letting his imagination run wild, and Alexa+ defuses the situation by booking him a massage with a cinnamon scrub, proving she’s helpful — not homicidal.
Created in-house at Amazon and directed by hungryman’s Wayne McClammy, the spot introduces Alexa+, Amazon’s enhanced AI assistant now available to all U.S. users — free for Prime members, $19.99/month otherwise. Hemsworth, cast against his usual fearless persona, said: “There’s a self-deprecating quality to it. I don’t mind being the joke in the scenario.”
Meta Pushes Oakley AI Smart Glasses
Rather than promoting its AI chatbot, Meta is taking a different approach at Super Bowl LX with two 30-second spots advertising its Oakley Meta AI glasses. The campaign features an all-star lineup including NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, filmmaker Spike Lee, golfer Akshay Bhatia, and skateboarder Sky Brown.
The spots highlight practical, hands-free AI use cases through wearable technology — a strategic move that differentiates Meta from competitors focused purely on chatbot interfaces. By showcasing AI through hardware rather than software, Meta is positioning itself at the intersection of fashion, sport, and artificial intelligence.
Svedka Makes History With First AI-Generated Super Bowl Ad
Vodka brand Svedka is claiming a Super Bowl first: the first “primarily” AI-generated national commercial. The 30-second spot, “Shake Your Bots Off,” features the return of the brand’s iconic Fembot character alongside a new companion, Brobot, dancing at a human party to a remixed version of Rick James’ “Super Freak.”
The robots slide open their body panels to reveal Svedka-branded shakers and vodka bottles before joining the crowd on the dance floor. The choreography was created by 23-year-old TikToker Jessica Rizzardi, who won the brand’s open call — earning a $10,000 prize — with Silverside AI then training the digital robots to replicate her moves.
According to Sazerac, Svedka’s parent company, it took roughly four months to reconstruct the Fembot and train the AI to mimic facial expressions and body movements. Silverside AI, the production partner known for controversial AI-generated Coca-Cola commercials, choreographed the robots’ dance “in a matter of hours” and made significant changes to the ad just a week before launch.
The reception has been polarized. While some praise the technical achievement, food publication Mashed described the ad as an “AI hellscape” featuring “two impossibly shiny and attractive humanoid robots staring at you, dead-eyed, while dancing and making cocktails.”
Other Notable AI-Powered Super Bowl Ads
Genspark With Matthew Broderick
AI startup Genspark is making a high-stakes Super Bowl debut with a 30-second spot airing twice — during halftime and the fourth quarter. Actor Matthew Broderick humorously demonstrates how the platform’s AI-powered productivity tools can free workers from tedious tasks. In a twist, the ad’s script was generated by the Genspark platform itself. The spot was a last-minute buy, secured just before Christmas.
Wix Harmony and Base44
Wix returns to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2019 to showcase Wix Harmony, its new AI-powered web design platform. The commercial follows a business owner using “vibe coding” to transform an idea into a professional website. Meanwhile, Base44 (recently acquired by Wix) debuts its AI-powered app development tool with the tagline “It’s App to You,” showing users building fully functioning apps in minutes using natural language.
Ring’s AI-Powered “Search Party”
Ring’s Super Bowl spot highlights its new AI-powered “Search Party” feature, where users can upload photos of a missing pet and leverage nearby Ring devices in the neighborhood to help locate them — a use case that will resonate with every pet owner watching the game.
Ramp With “The Office” Star
Fintech company Ramp features Brian Baumgartner — Kevin from The Office — using Ramp’s AI-powered spend management platform to “multiply” himself and effortlessly tackle a mountain of work.
The Bigger Picture: Why 2026 Is the AI Super Bowl
Every year, Super Bowl advertisements serve as a snapshot of the industries with the most money and confidence. In 2000, it was the “Dot-Com Bowl.” In 2022, it was the “Crypto Bowl.” In 2026, artificial intelligence has unequivocally claimed the spotlight.
The numbers tell the story: generative AI platforms allocated more than $1 billion to digital advertising in 2025 alone. Both Google and Microsoft are paying content creators between $400,000 and $600,000 for initiatives that drive adoption of their AI tools. With 16 tech companies advertising during Super Bowl LX, the message is clear — AI is no longer a niche technology for early adopters. It’s a consumer product fighting for mainstream acceptance.
What’s particularly striking about 2026’s AI Super Bowl ads is the range of approaches. Anthropic chose confrontation, directly attacking a competitor’s business model. Google chose emotion, framing AI as a family companion. Amazon chose comedy, acknowledging and disarming AI anxiety. Svedka chose spectacle, using AI to create the ad itself. And OpenAI chose aspiration, positioning its tools for builders and creators.
With both OpenAI and Anthropic reportedly planning IPOs by late 2026 and Gemini rapidly closing the gap on ChatGPT’s user base, these multimillion-dollar commercials are about far more than brand awareness. They’re opening salvos in a battle that will define which companies — and which philosophies about AI’s role in society — win the next decade.
Super Bowl LX airs today, February 8, 2026, on NBC from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
