Latest news with #VarunMohan
India Today
2 hours ago
- Business
- India Today
Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan says Claude access for Windsurf was cut because of OpenAI
Anthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan has confirmed that Anthropic deliberately cut Windsurf's direct access to its Claude models due to ongoing reports that OpenAI plans to acquire Windsurf. Kaplan's reasoning is that 'it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI' through a third party. In this case, it is response and confirmation comes after Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan publicly slammed Anthropic for cutting off Windsurf's first-party access to Claude 3.x models with less than a week's notice, forcing the popular AI-native IDE (short for Integrated Development Environment) to make last-minute adjustments for its user base. This was not a one-off incident either. Earlier, Anthropic had barred Windsurf users from accessing the new Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 models on day one of was widely speculated that the purported OpenAI acquisition would be a big bone of contention, since logic dictates that Anthropic may not want OpenAI – a competing AI brand – to have any type of open window to its user data which it could then use to train its own ChatGPT models. Kaplan has basically admitted to this conspiracy theory, giving a bit of an insight into Anthropic's core reasoning behind – what some might call – severing ties with a platform used by over a million developers globally. There are two reasons. One is that Anthropic – like any other company – would want to focus on long-term customers, those it can have long-term partnerships with. Secondly, it won't be smart to spend resources – meaning compute – which is limited to clients that may or may not be around in the near did not address the elephant in the room, which is whether it was okay with OpenAI getting access to its data if it ends up buying Windsurf, as per reports. Obviously, he did not make any comment on where the industry would go if this became a common practice, just like he did not say if Windsurf users should expect uninterrupted access to Claude without Anthropic keys anytime CEO Varun Mohan has called it a 'short-term' issue, hinting that discussions are probably on for some middle ground. In the meantime, Windsurf is actively working to bring new capacity online while launching a promotional scheme for Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, offering it at 0.75x its original price. Also, it has implemented a "bring-your-own-key" (BYOK) system for Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 as well as for the Claude 3.x models, while removing direct access for free users and those on Pro plan trials.'We have been very clear to the Anthropic team that our priority was to keep the Anthropic models as recommended models and have been continuously willing to pay for the capacity,' Mohan said in a blog post, adding that 'We are concerned that Anthropic's conduct will harm many in the industry, not just Windsurf.'
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Anthropic Cuts Windsurf's Claude Access Before OpenAI Acquisition
CHONGQING, CHINA - DECEMBER 29: In this photo illustration, a person holds a smartphone displaying ... More the logo of 'Claude,' an AI language model by Anthropic, with the company's logo visible in the background, illustrating the rapid development and adoption of generative AI technologies, on December 29, 2024 in Chongqing, China. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a cornerstone of China's strategic ambitions, with the government aiming to establish the country as a global leader in AI by 2030. (Photo illustration by) Anthropic has abruptly terminated Windsurf's direct access to Claude 3.x models with less than five days' notice, according to an announcement from Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan on Tuesday. The decision comes as OpenAI reportedly moves to acquire the AI coding platform for $3 billion. Mohan announced the restriction on X (formerly Twitter), stating that Anthropic "decided to cut off nearly all of our first-party capacity to all Claude 3.x models" despite Windsurf's willingness to pay for full capacity. "We have been very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire - we wanted to pay them for the full capacity," Mohan wrote. "We are disappointed by this decision and short notice." The restriction has caused temporary availability issues for Windsurf users, though the company says Windsurf users can access Claude via bring-your-own-key. Bloomberg reported on May 6 that OpenAI agreed to buy Windsurf for approximately $3 billion, marking what would be OpenAI's largest acquisition to date. The deal has not yet closed. Industry observers suggest Anthropic's timing is strategic, aimed at preventing a competitor from accessing Claude's capabilities to enhance OpenAI's models. Other AI coding platforms maintain their Claude access, highlighting the targeted nature of the restriction. To mitigate the impact from Anthropic's models, Windsurf has promoted alternative models including Gemini 2.5 Pro at a reduced 0.75x rate. The platform's GPT-4.1 and other model integrations remain unaffected.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Windsurf CEO reveals that Anthropic is restricting access to Claude AI models
AI coding startup Windsurf has said that Anthropic has removed almost all access to their Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI models. CEO Varun Mohan said that Anthropic's decision to block first-party access was done with 'less than five days of notice,' in a post on X. 'Given the short notice, we may see some short-term Claude 3.x model availability issues as we have very quickly ramped up capacity on other inference providers, but we believe we have now secured sufficient near term capacity,' he went on. Last month, post the launch of Anthropic's latest Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 models, Mr. Mohan wrote in another post on X that the AI firm hadn't given direct access to them. He added that Windsurf has been 'very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire,' and that they want to pay them for the 'full capacity,' but the short notice and the eventual decision by Anthropic was 'disappointing.' However, he said that they had worked to make Windsurf work much better with Gemini 2.5 Pro as an alternative. 'Gemini 2.5 Pro (now very high quality on Windsurf, new 0.75x promo rate), GPT 4.1, and more are all unaffected,' he stated in the same post. It was reported in April that Anthropic rival, OpenAI was in talks with Windsurf to acquire them as the AI vibe coding segment heat up.
India Today
2 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Software developers take note, Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan slams Anthropic over Claude access
Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan has slammed Anthropic for allegedly cutting off Windsurf's first-party access to Claude 3.x models (Claude 3.5 Sonnet, 3.7 Sonnet, and 3.7 Sonnet Thinking) with less than a week's notice forcing the company to make immediate adjustments for users, particularly those on the free tier. This is not a one-off recently accused Anthropic of deliberately keeping Windsurf users from accessing the new Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 models on day one [May 22, 2025], unlike some competitors such as Cursor and GitHub little bit of context and reading between the lines is enough to state the obvious. Windsurf is a popular AI-native IDE (Integrated Development Environment) which is used by over a million developers globally - it was recently acquired by OpenAI, which is a competitor to Amazon-backed Anthropic. According to one far-fetched conspiracy theory on the internet, Anthropic may not want OpenAI collecting its data, both query and response, to seemingly train and improve its own AI. This could be a reason why it is taking these measures. Through X (formerly Twitter) and a dedicated blog post, Mohan informed that while Windsurf has some capacity from other inference providers, it's currently insufficient to meet existing demand due to the short notice window from Anthropic and so, users may experience some capacity issues with Claude 3.x models. He reiterated that this was a 'short-term' is actively working to bring new capacity online, he said, while launching a promotional scheme for Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, offering it at 0.75x its original price while highlighting it as 'a strong alternative' for users during this had implemented a "bring-your-own-key" (BYOK) system for Claude Sonnet 4 and Opus 4 as a workaround for users to access these models through their own API keys from Anthropic. Now, it is extending this BYOK option to include the Claude 3.x models - while removing direct access for free users and those on Pro plan theory why all this might be happening, is that, with OpenAI now owning Windsurf, there is an off chance that it would start to limit options to boost the use of its own AI. At the time of writing though, Mohan has emphasised Windsurf's commitment to providing the best product and access to all models - including Anthropic's.'We have been very clear to the Anthropic team that our priority was to keep the Anthropic models as recommended models and have been continuously willing to pay for the capacity,' he said, adding that 'We are concerned that Anthropic's conduct will harm many in the industry, not just Windsurf.'It will be interesting to see how things pan out in the future.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Windsurf says Anthropic is limiting its direct access to Claude AI models
Windsurf, the popular vibe coding startup that's reportedly being acquired by OpenAI, said Anthropic significantly reduced its first-party access to its Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI models. Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan said in a post on X that Anthropic gave Windsurf little notice for this change, and the startup now has to find other third-party compute providers to run several of Anthropic's most popular AI models on its platform. "We have been very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire - we wanted to pay them for the full capacity," said Mohan on X. "We are disappointed by this decision and short notice." In a blog post, Windsurf said it has some capacity with third-party inference providers, but not enough, so this change may create short-term availability issues for Windsurf users trying to access Claude. The decision comes just a few weeks after Anthropic seemed to pass over Windsurf during the launch of Claude 4, the company's new family of models, which offer industry leading performance on software engineering tasks. On launch day, Windsurf said it did not receive direct access from Anthropic to run Claude 4 on its platform, and still hasn't. This forced the company to rely on a workaround that's more expensive and complicated for developers to access Claude 4. Meanwhile, other popular AI coding tools — including Anysphere's Cursor, Cognition's Devin, and Microsoft's GitHub Copilot — seemed to have direct access to Claude 4 models at launch. The AI-assisted coding sector, also know as vibe coding, has heated up in recent months. OpenAI reportedly closed on a deal to acquire Windsurf in April. At the same time, Anthropic — whose AI models are a favorite among developers — has invested more in its own AI-coding applications. In February, Anthropic launched its own AI coding application, Claude Code, and in May, the startup held its first Code with Claude developer conference. "We're prioritizing capacity for sustainable partnerships that allow us to effectively serve the broader developer community," said Anthropic spokesperson Steve Mnich in an email to TechCrunch on Tuesday, noting that it's still possible to access Claude 4 on Windsurf via an API key. "Developers can also access Claude through our direct API integration, our partner ecosystem, and other development tools." Windsurf has grown quickly this year, reaching $100 million ARR in April, in an attempt to catch up with more popular AI coding tools such as Cursor and GitHub Copilot. However, Windsurf's limited access to Anthropic's models may be stunting its growth. Several Windsurf users who spoke with TechCrunch were frustrated by the lack of direct access to Anthropic's best AI coding models. Ronald Mannak, a startup founder that specializes in Apple's programming language, Swift, told TechCrunch that Claude 4 represented a significant jump in capabilities for his workloads. While Mannak has been a Windsurf customer since late 2024, he's switched to using Cursor in recent weeks so that he can vibe code more easily with Claude 4. As a short-term solution to support Claude 4, Windsurf allows users to connect their Anthropic API keys to their Windsurf accounts. However, developers have noted that this "bring your own key" solution is more expensive and complicated than if Windsurf provided the models itself. When it comes to vibe coders, optionality is the name of the game. Every few months, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic release new AI models that seem to outperform the industry on coding tasks. Because of that, it benefits vibe coding startups to support AI models from all the leading developers. Windsurf spokesperson Payal Patel tells TechCrunch via email that the company has always believed in providing optionality for users. In this case, it seems Anthropic has made that a bit more challenging. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at
