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Alibaba Bans Anthropic’s Claude Code Over Security Concerns

Alibaba is banning employees from using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence tools for work, according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest sign of growing restrictions around AI use amid escalating U.S.-China technology tensions.

Starting July 10, the Chinese technology group will prohibit staff from using Anthropic’s Claude Code for business purposes, citing potential security risks. Alibaba has also classified the tool as high-risk software and instructed employees to remove Anthropic’s AI models and agent products from their devices, replacing them with the company’s own AI coding assistant, Qoder.

Dispute Follows Anthropic Allegations

The move comes weeks after Anthropic accused Alibaba of attempting to extract capabilities from its AI models through what it described as the largest known model distillation campaign against the company.

In a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Anthropic alleged that Alibaba had acted “brazenly” and “illicitly.”

AI Access Faces Tighter Controls

Anthropic’s terms of service prohibit companies in China and other countries it classifies as “adversarial nations” from using its models. According to the Financial Times, the company has also tightened controls to prevent Chinese firms from accessing Claude through third countries.

At the same time, claims circulated on Reddit and GitHub alleging that Claude Code contains hidden code capable of detecting whether users are based in China. Anthropic has not publicly responded to those allegations.

Chinese Companies Reassess AI Strategy

The restrictions extend beyond Alibaba. According to the Financial Times, Ant Group had provided employees with corporate Claude accounts through its Singapore entity, while ByteDance has reimbursed staff for personal Claude subscriptions so engineers can access the service via virtual private networks.

CNBC reported that ByteDance introduced the reimbursement programme in April to help employees “experience and learn” from a wider range of AI products.

Competition Intensifies

Alibaba’s decision reflects the increasingly fragmented AI landscape, as technology companies tighten internal policies, limit third-party AI tools and invest more heavily in proprietary models.

Neither Alibaba nor Anthropic immediately responded to requests for comment.

Mirendil Signs $100 Million Google Cloud Deal To Advance Self-Improving AI

AI startup Mirendil has signed a multi-year agreement worth more than $100 million with Google Cloud to secure computing infrastructure for its self-improving AI research.

The partnership reflects growing competition among AI companies to lock in access to high-performance computing, while cloud providers race to attract promising startups developing next-generation AI models.

Backing The Next Stage Of AI Research

Mirendil plans to use Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), Nvidia GPUs and managed training infrastructure to develop AI systems capable of improving their own performance over time.

Known as recursive self-improvement, the concept focuses on building AI that can refine its knowledge and capabilities with minimal human intervention. The technology is attracting growing interest across the industry, with several startups and leading AI labs exploring similar approaches.

According to co-founder and Chief Executive Behnam Neyshabur, the long-term goal is to develop AI that can automate scientific research and accelerate discoveries in fields such as medicine, biology and materials science.

Compute Capacity Becomes A Strategic Asset

Training increasingly advanced AI models requires enormous computing resources, making long-term infrastructure agreements a critical competitive advantage.

Mirendil said Google’s combination of TPUs and GPUs allows workloads to be matched with the most suitable hardware, improving efficiency while reducing costs for customers.

For Google Cloud, the agreement strengthens its position in the race to provide infrastructure for frontier AI developers, while giving the company exposure to one of the industry’s emerging approaches to next-generation artificial intelligence.

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