OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence platform, aims to build a powerful platform to compete with Anthropic.
The owner of ChatGPT announced on Thursday, March 20, 2026, that it will acquire Python tools maker Astral to strengthen its portfolio against rival Anthropic and gain a larger share of the artificial intelligence coding tools market.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but said the acquisition will bring Astral’s suite of development tools to the Microsoft-backed startup’s Codex AI coding system.
OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, who launched the Codex platform last year, is increasing competition as Anthropic gains traction among software developers with its Claude Code tool.
OpenAI released a desktop app for its coding tool earlier this year.
The company announced Thursday that Codex now has more than 2 million weekly active users, with user numbers tripling and usage surging fivefold since the beginning of the year.
Astral has become a major player in the Python community. Its tools are designed to improve the speed and reliability of Python development.
“OpenAI will continue to support our open source tools after the transaction closes,” Astral founder and CEO Charlie Marsh said in a statement.
