OpenAI has acquired Astral, a startup whose essential Python development tools are used by millions. This strategic move aims to bolster OpenAI's Codex group, which faces competition from Anthropic's Claude Code.

Anthropic, a smaller rival started by OpenAI defectors, has found runaway success with its programming agent, Claude Code. The product accounts for nearly a fifth of its business—more than $2.5 billion in annualized revenue,

OpenAI acquires Astral, the Python toolmaker, to enhance Codex AI coding assistant as it competes with Anthropic's Claude Code and Cursor.

In a move clearly designed to strengthen its position among developers, OpenAI has acquired Python tool maker Astral. The house of Altman expects the deal to strengthen the ecosystem for its Codex programming agent.

OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy admits to being in a state of psychosis, grappling with the potential of artificial intelligence, having not coded since December.

OpenAI plans to almost double its headcount by the end of the year as it accelerates a push to sell to businesses and gain ground on rival Anthropic in a race for a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars.