Anthropic, OpenAI's main rival, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Stainless API, a company specializing in SDK and Model Context Protocol (MCP) infrastructure.
Background
Stainless has partnered with Anthropic since its inception, building the software development kits (SDKs) that allow developers to integrate Claude into their applications. This acquisition signals Anthropic's intent to gain full control over the developer experience, especially through the MCP protocol that the company has been heavily promoting.
Why it matters
This acquisition marks Anthropic's transition from a model-focused company to a platform ecosystem. MCP is becoming the new standard for connecting LLMs to external tools, and owning Stainless will help Anthropic accelerate the adoption of this protocol, putting pressure on the ecosystems of OpenAI and Google.