Anthropic just dropped Claude Sonnet 4.5, marking what could be a pivotal moment in AI-powered software development. The company claims this new frontier model can build production-ready applications instead of just prototypes - a bold leap that directly challenges OpenAI's recent coding supremacy with GPT-5.
Anthropic just made its biggest play yet in the AI coding wars. The company's new Claude Sonnet 4.5 model, launched Monday, promises something that's been the holy grail of AI development - the ability to build production-ready applications rather than quick prototypes that need human cleanup.
The timing isn't coincidental. Just months after OpenAI's GPT-5 started outperforming Claude models on coding benchmarks, Anthropic is firing back with what it calls industry-leading performance on several key metrics, including the rigorous SWE-Bench Verified benchmark that tests real-world software engineering tasks.
But here's where it gets interesting - Anthropic researcher David Hershey tells TechCrunch the benchmarks don't tell the full story. During early enterprise trials, he watched Claude Sonnet 4.5 code autonomously for up to 30 hours straight, not just writing code but handling the entire software lifecycle - standing up database services, purchasing domain names, and even performing SOC 2 security audits.
That level of end-to-end automation represents a quantum leap from current AI coding tools that excel at specific tasks but struggle with complex, multi-step projects. Apple and Meta are already using Claude models internally, according to industry reports, while Anthropic has built a thriving business selling API access to popular coding platforms like Cursor, Windsurf, and Replit.
The competitive landscape has intensified dramatically over the past year. Anthropic's models emerged as developer favorites precisely because of their strong software engineering performance, but OpenAI's GPT-5 launch shifted the balance, forcing Anthropic to accelerate its development timeline.
