The developer platform used by OpenAI and Google is now owned by Anthropic

Anthropic announced that it has acquired Stainless, which develops tools for developers. The purchase price of the startup, which is also used by technology companies such as OpenAI, Google and Cloudflare, was not disclosed. However, in the news published by The Information last week, it was stated that Anthropic was in negotiations to purchase the Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup with a valuation of over $ 300 million. With the acquisition, Anthropic acquired an important infrastructure provider that its competitors also benefit from. The company also confirmed that Stainless will be discontinuing some of its hosted products.

Founded in New York in 2022, Stainless quickly attracted attention with its tools for automatically creating and keeping software development kits, namely SDKs, up to date. Developed by company founder and former Stripe engineer Alex Rattray, the system could translate API definitions directly into production-ready SDKs. This structure, which offers support for different programming languages ​​such as Python, TypeScript, Kotlin, Go and Java, has become widely used among developers, especially because it facilitates the maintenance process of frequently changing APIs. In addition, the platform’s automatic update system significantly reduced the need for manual maintenance.

According to the statement made by Anthropic, all hosted products offered by Stainless will be phased out. This will include the SDK creation tool. Despite this, the company stated that existing customers will retain their rights to SDKs they have previously created. It was stated that users can continue to modify, extend and use these SDKs. Thus, it is aimed to prevent existing projects from being directly affected in the short term.

Stainless technology provided critical infrastructure for artificial intelligence companies

The tools developed by Stainless played a critical role, especially for artificial intelligence companies. Companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Runway, Replicate and Cloudflare need API infrastructures to connect with different services while developing artificial intelligence agents that can perform operations on behalf of the user. SDKs stand out as one of the basic layers that ensure these connections operate reliably and sustainably. Stainless’s automatically updated SDK system accelerated the integration processes of these companies and also reduced maintenance costs.

It is noteworthy that after the acquisition, these vehicles will be used only within Anthropic. Thus, Anthropic took control of a development infrastructure that rival companies also benefit from. In addition, the company also announced that Stainless technology has been used in its own systems for a long time. According to the information provided, all of Anthropic’s official SDKs have been created with the Stainless infrastructure since the first day.

Stainless founder Alex Rattray said in his statement that he founded the company with the idea that SDKs should be developed as carefully as the APIs they contain. Stating that Anthropic has been one of the companies that has supported this approach since the first period, Rattray stated that they have closely followed how Claude-based applications are used by developers in recent years. Rattray stated that the decision to bring the teams of the two companies together was therefore a natural process.

It seems that Anthropic has recently increased its investments especially in the developer ecosystem. While the company is trying to establish a stronger software development infrastructure around the Claude model, the fact that it has incorporated the tools used by its competitors is considered a remarkable development in the sector. However, discontinuing Stainless products as independent services may cause existing users to turn to alternative solutions. This situation is expected to accelerate the search for new tools, especially in API-based software development processes.