Anthropic Co-Founder: We Won't Sell Claude AI to OpenAI

Anthropic co-founder and Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan stated that his company terminated Windsurf's direct access to its Claude AI models primarily due to rumors and reports suggesting its main competitor, OpenAI, is acquiring the AI coding assistant.

"Our focus is on supporting customers who plan to build a sustainable, long-term partnership with us," Kaplan explained during an onstage interview with TechCrunch at TC Sessions: AI 2025 on Thursday.

"It would be unusual for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI," Kaplan added.

This statement follows a Bloomberg report from a few weeks ago indicating OpenAI is acquiring Windsurf for $3 billion. Earlier this week, Windsurf announced that Anthropic had cut its direct access to Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3.7 Sonnet, two of the most popular AI models for coding. This forced the startup to quickly find alternative third-party computing providers. Windsurf expressed disappointment with Anthropic's decision, warning it could lead to short-term instability for users accessing Claude through its platform.

Windsurf declined to comment on Kaplan's remarks, and an OpenAI spokesperson did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request. Neither company has confirmed the acquisition rumors.

According to Kaplan, part of the reason for cutting Windsurf's access is that Anthropic is currently facing significant computing constraints. The company prefers to allocate its computing resources to what Kaplan described as "lasting partnerships."

However, Kaplan noted that Anthropic aims to significantly increase model availability for users and developers in the coming months. He mentioned the company has begun unlocking capacity on a new, large-scale computing cluster from its partner Amazon, which is continuously expanding.

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As Anthropic distances itself from Windsurf, Kaplan said the company is collaborating with other customers developing AI coding tools, such as Cursor—a company Anthropic expects to have a long-term relationship with. Kaplan dismissed the notion that Anthropic is competing with firms like Cursor, which is also building its own AI models.

Meanwhile, Kaplan stated that Anthropic is increasingly prioritizing the development of its own agentic coding products, like Claude Code, over traditional AI chatbot interfaces. While companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta compete to dominate the AI chatbot space, Kaplan believes the static nature of chatbots is limiting. He argues that AI agents will ultimately provide far greater utility for users in the long run.