OpenAI has announced an agreement to acquire Astral, a startup known for building high-performance, open-source developer tools in the Python ecosystem.
Astral is behind popular tools including: An extremely fast Python package and project manager (alternative to pip and similar tools). Ruff: A super-fast Python linter and formatter written in Rust. ty: A high-speed Python type checker and language server. These tools are widely adopted, powering millions of developer workflows and forming a key part of modern Python development.
The deal will bring Astral’s team and expertise into OpenAI’s Codex group; OpenAI’s AI-powered coding assistant and system, which has seen rapid growth and millions of users. OpenAI aims to accelerate Codex development, enabling deeper integrations so AI agents can interact more seamlessly with real developer tools across the full software development lifecycle.
Both companies emphasized a continued commitment to open source: OpenAI plans to support and maintain Astral’s projects post-closing, with ongoing community-focused development. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisition is not yet finalized—it remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
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This move fits into OpenAI’s broader push to strengthen its position in AI-driven coding tools, especially amid competition from rivals like Anthropic which made a similar move by acquiring Bun in late 2025. It also aligns with OpenAI’s recent pattern of acquisitions to bolster developer ecosystems and agentic AI capabilities.
This is a strategic step toward making AI more deeply embedded in everyday developer workflows rather than just code generation. Anthropic acquired Bun in late 2025, marking its first public acquisition and a strategic move to bolster its AI-powered coding tools. Bun, the high-performance JavaScript and TypeScript runtime, toolkit, bundler, package manager, and test runner created by Jarred Sumner, joined Anthropic to power and accelerate Claude Code — Anthropic’s AI coding agent.
Claude Code launched generally available in May 2025 had already adopted Bun earlier in the year and shipped as a Bun executable to millions of users. The acquisition ensures stability, faster performance, and deeper integration for Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, and future AI coding products.
Bun remains fully open source under the MIT license, with ongoing public development on GitHub. Anthropic committed to continued investment in Bun’s core features for the broader JS/TS developer community. Financial terms were not disclosed. The move coincided with Anthropic revealing that Claude Code had hit a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate, highlighting the explosive growth of its developer-focused AI tools.
This acquisition reflects the intensifying competition in AI-driven developer workflows. AI companies are moving beyond pure model capabilities to vertically integrate the full software development stack — from runtime environments and tooling to agentic interactions. For context, Claude Code relies heavily on Bun for speed and reliability.
Post-acquisition, Claude Code saw notable performance gains attributed to Bun’s team led by Jarred Sumner working directly on optimizations. It parallels recent moves like OpenAI’s acquisition of Astral to enhance Codex with Python ecosystem tools (uv, Ruff, ty).
This fits Anthropic’s broader strategy: disciplined acquisitions that align with technical excellence, enterprise strength, and safe AI development — while keeping core tools open and community-driven. It’s a clear signal that winning in AI coding means owning or deeply controlling the infrastructure developers actually use.