OpenAI has announced the acquisition of Astral, a company that develops tools for the Python programming language, as the ChatGPT creator moves to strengthen its position in the artificial intelligence coding tools market against rival Anthropic. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either party, but the acquisition will bring Astral’s developer tools into OpenAI’s Codex artificial intelligence coding platform, which the Microsoft-backed company launched last year and has since been expanding as a core part of its developer-focused product strategy.
The move is a direct response to the growing traction that Anthropic has gained among software developers with its Claude Code tool, which has positioned the rival company as a formidable competitor in a segment of the artificial intelligence market that is attracting significant attention from both developers and enterprises. OpenAI’s Codex platform has been gaining considerable momentum of its own, with the company disclosing that Codex now has more than two million weekly active users, representing a three-fold increase in its user base and a five-fold jump in overall usage since the beginning of the year. Earlier this year, OpenAI also launched a dedicated desktop application for its coding tools, further embedding Codex into the daily workflows of software developers.
Astral has established itself as a significant presence within the Python developer community, with its tools built specifically to improve speed and reliability in Python-based development workflows. Python has become one of the most widely used programming languages in the world, particularly in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence development, making Astral’s expertise directly relevant to the environments in which artificial intelligence coding assistants are most heavily used. Astral’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Charlie Marsh confirmed that OpenAI would continue supporting the company’s open-source tools following the close of the deal, an assurance likely intended to maintain the trust and continued engagement of the developer community that has built workflows around Astral’s existing products.
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