OpenAI has just announced plans to acquire Astral, a Python tool development company, to enhance the capabilities of the AI Codex programming platform, in the context of increasingly fierce competition with Anthropic.
Although not disclosing the value of the deal, OpenAI said the merger will help integrate Astral's toolkit into Codex, thereby improving performance, stability and software development speed.
This is considered a strategic step to expand the product ecosystem, while attracting an additional community of programmers.
Codex, an AI programming platform developed by OpenAI, currently records more than 2 million active users per week.
According to the company, this number has tripled in users and five times in usage since the beginning of the year, showing a strong demand for artificial intelligence programming support tools.
Meanwhile, Anthropic is also emerging as a formidable competitor with Claude Code products, attracting great attention from software developers. This makes the race in the field of AI programming fiercer than ever.
Astral is considered one of the notable names in the Python community, with tools to help optimize speed and reliability when developing software.
Astral CEO, Charlie Marsh, affirmed that after completing the deal, OpenAI will continue to maintain and support the company's open source projects.
Previously, OpenAI also launched a desktop application for programming tools, showing its ambition to expand deeper into the field of AI-based software development.
