source: techcrunch ai: anthropic has acquired the dev tools startup used by openai, google, and cloudflare
level: business
anthropic announced it has acquired stainless, a new york-based startup that automates the creation and maintenance of software development kits. stainless was founded in 2022 by former stripe engineer alex rattray and backed by sequoia capital and andreessen horowitz. the deal, reportedly valued at over $300 million, will see anthropic wind down all hosted stainless products, including its sdk generator. existing customers will retain ownership of their generated sdks and can modify them as needed.
stainless became popular among ai companies for turning api specifications into production-ready sdks across multiple programming languages like python, typescript, kotlin, go, and java. its platform automatically updates sdks when apis change, saving developers from manual maintenance. the tool was used by major ai labs including openai, google, replicate, runway, and cloudflare to build and maintain connections for ai agents that interact with external software.
anthropic has been a long-time user of stainless, with the startup's software powering every official anthropic sdk since its api launched. rattray said the acquisition was an easy decision because anthropic was an early supporter and the team can continue its work on a platform where it matters most. by acquiring stainless, anthropic removes a critical infrastructure supplier from its competitors, potentially giving it an advantage in developer tooling for ai agents.
why it matters: this acquisition could shift the ai developer ecosystem by making a widely used sdk automation tool exclusive to anthropic, potentially slowing down competitors' agent development.
source: techcrunch ai: anthropic has acquired the dev tools startup used by openai, google, and cloudflare