Anthropic has acquired startup Stainless for a reported $300 million or more, taking out a key supplier of software development kits (SDKs) used by rival AI labs like OpenAI and Google. The acquisition will give Anthropic control over the infrastructure that allows its competitors to build and maintain connections between their AI agents and external software.
Stainless's software automatically generates SDKs across multiple programming languages, saving developers time and effort in maintaining those libraries as APIs change. The technology is particularly valuable to companies building AI agents that can complete tasks on behalf of users. Anthropic says Stainless software has powered the generation of every official Anthropic SDK since its API launch.
Anthropic will wind down all hosted Stainless products, including an SDK generator, but customers will retain ownership and rights to modify and extend their existing SDKs. This deal marks a significant expansion of Anthropic's capabilities in AI infrastructure and may give it a competitive edge over rival labs.
Stainless was founded by former Stripe engineer Alex Rattray in 2022 and has backing from Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.
