Anthropic, the AI startup backed by Amazon and founded by former OpenAI researchers, has just launched Claude 4 — its most advanced suite of AI models to date — promising a new era of autonomous agents that can code, reason, and write with unprecedented depth and stamina.
The Claude 4 family includes Claude Opus 4, the flagship model optimized for complex coding and autonomous workflows, and Claude Sonnet 4, a more affordable, efficient model ideal for everyday tasks. Both are available via Anthropic’s API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI.
Why It Matters
Claude Opus 4 is being hailed by Anthropic as “the best coding model in the world,” outperforming rivals like OpenAI’s GPT-4.1, Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, and DeepSeek-VL on internal benchmarks. In testing, it worked autonomously for up to seven hours, completing corporate-level coding tasks — a major milestone for AI “agents” designed to take on multi-hour assignments without human help.
“These models are much, much stronger as agents and as coders,” said Jared Kaplan, Anthropic’s Chief Science Officer. “Once testers got access, no one wanted to go back.”
Key Features of Claude 4
- Agentic Capabilities: Claude can plan, execute, and reason through complex tasks with minimal user input.
- Tool Use & Web Search: Switches between reasoning and external tools like search engines.
- Extended Thinking Mode (beta): Lets users toggle between reasoning and action-focused modes.
- Thinking Summaries: Automatically summarizes its internal logic into easy-to-follow insights.
- Long-Term Memory: When connected to local files, Claude can store and recall key facts to maintain continuity.
The Claude 4 Lineup
- Claude Opus 4: Anthropic’s top-tier model for coding, research, and long tasks.
- Claude Sonnet 4: Optimized for speed and affordability, replacing Sonnet 3.7. Free-tier users only get access to this model.
How It’s Being Used
- Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger said he now lets Claude write most of his long-form work:
“Before Claude 4, I did most of the writing. Now, I mostly read what Opus produces and edit lightly.” - Revenue is soaring. Anthropic’s annualized revenue hit $2 billion in Q1 2025, double the previous period.
- Customers spending over $100K annually increased 8x year-over-year, according to Revenue Chief Kate Jensen.
Competition and Future Plans
Anthropic says Claude 4 is already being adopted by coding startups and enterprise users alike. It now ranks second behind Google on Polymarket’s AI model leaderboard, pushing OpenAI into third place.
With the Claude Code agentic command-line tool now out of preview and a commitment to “more frequent model updates,” Anthropic is clearly going all-in on cementing its place in the AI elite.
As the AI wars intensify, one thing is clear: Claude is no longer just a thinking partner — it’s a worker.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
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