Anthropic has acquired Stainless, a New York-based startup that makes tools for automating the creation of software development kits (SDKs). The deal will leave Claude’s direct competitors without access to a critical infrastructure service.
Anthropic has acquired Stainless, a New York-based startup that makes tools for automating the creation of software development kits (SDKs). The deal will leave Claude’s direct competitors without access to a critical infrastructure service.
As TechCrunch notes , the companies are not officially disclosing the terms of the deal. However, according to preliminary data from The Information, the startup, which was backed by Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, is valued at more than $300 million.
After the acquisition is complete, Anthropic plans to phase out all of Stainless's cloud products, including the SDK generator. Existing customers will retain rights to the tools already generated and will be able to freely modify them, but the technology will continue to serve Anthropic's needs exclusively.
Stainless is capable of translating API specifications into ready-to-use extensions for programming languages such as Python, TypeScript, Kotlin, Go, and Java. The service automatically updates these toolkits when APIs change, eliminating the need for manual maintenance. According to Anthropic, this software has generated all of the company’s official SDKs since the early days of its API.
“I created Stainless because SDKs deserve the same attention as the APIs they wrap. Anthropic was one of the first teams to believe in this with us. We had watched developers build on Claude for the past few years, and it made combining our teams a simple decision,” said startup founder and former Stripe engineer Alex Rattray in a statement about the deal.
Stainless was founded in 2022 and quickly gained popularity in the AI industry. Its technology has proven particularly valuable for creating AI agents that can connect to external software and perform tasks on behalf of users.
Until now, the company's tools have been actively used by leading market players, including OpenAI, Google, Replicate, Runway, and Cloudflare, who will now have to look for alternative solutions.
Previously, Anthropic acquired the startup Bun, which creates solutions for developers that help them program more efficiently.
