As competition in the AI industry intensifies, a notable "talent poaching" incident has recently occurred. The developer of the popular coding app Cursor, Anysphere, successfully recruited two key figures from Anthropic: Boris Cherny, the lead developer of the Claude Code project, and Cat Wu, a product manager. This move has not only surprised industry insiders but also complicated the relationship between Anthraphic and Cursor.
According to reports, Boris Cherny is regarded as the "soul" behind the Claude Code technology. His joining Cursor will undoubtedly bring strong technical power to the company. At Anysphere, he will serve as Chief Architect and Engineering Director, responsible for developing more intelligent coding features aimed at automating complex programming tasks. Meanwhile, Cat Wu will act as Product Director, continuing to drive product innovation and development.
Image source note: The image was generated by AI, and the image licensing service provider is Midjourney.
Notably, the relationship between Cursor and Anthropic is not just a typical competitor relationship. Cursor is one of Anthropic's largest clients, and their mutual technological dependence makes this talent poaching particularly bold. In an interview, Cherny mentioned that approximately 80% of Anthropic's code is written by Claude, further highlighting the importance of Claude in the AI programming field.
Despite the loss of talent, Anthropic's business continues to grow strongly. According to the latest data from The Information, Anthropic's annual revenue has reached $4 billion, nearly quadrupling since the beginning of the year, with its valuation soaring to $61.5 billion. These figures indicate that despite the challenge of talent loss, Anthropic remains a powerful player in the AI market.
At the same time, Anysphere's performance is also growing rapidly. Recent reports show that its annual recurring revenue has exceeded $500 million. This success is closely related to its successful integration of Anthropic's AI technology and continuous optimization of the user experience. The business of Cursor is developing quickly, even beginning to support web and mobile app development.
The competition in the AI programming market is fierce, with major companies launching their own products. Anthropic, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Amazon, and others are all actively expanding their presence. This talent poaching by Anysphere of two core figures from the Claude Code project will bring new changes to the market, and the future development is worth looking forward to.
