Google is secretly building a Claude Code challenger, Sergey Brin is personally involved
Google is ramping up its effort to improve coding capabilities of its AI models. The move comes at a time when the company is facing increasing competition from Anthropic.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is back at leading the company's AI effort when it is facing increasing competition from Anthropic. The company's co-founder was at the forefront of the company’s AI effort when it was caught off guard by the sudden popularity of generative AI after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. At the time, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly issued a "code red" within the company, and it seems like the company is back in a similar situation.
It has now assembled a team of researchers and engineers, called strike team, to improve its AI coding models to take on Anthropic. The latest move comes due to recent Anthropic AI model releases, which have prompted Google to increase its focus on code-writing abilities, as per a report by The Information. The report says researchers at the company believe their Gemini AI models are not at par with Anthropic coding tools and need improvement.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Google DeepMind Chief Technology Officer Koray Kavukcuoglu, who are directly involved in the strike team, have asked staffers to catch up with AI agents.
Focus on self-improving AI systems
The company wants to improve its coding abilities for tasks such as writing a new piece of software by reading through files and understanding users' intent, with an aim to create an AI that can improve itself. Google’s primary focus is centred on creating models that can be used internally and trained on its code.
While these models cannot be released publicly as Google code differs from general-purpose code, they can help in creating other models for public release. Brin has also written to Google’s employees to use internal agents for complex, multi-step tasks.
In comparison to its competition, Google is way behind when it comes to using AI tools to write code. For comparison, Anthropic’s code is fully written using AI, as per Boris Cherny, Claude Code head, whereas Google uses coding agents to write about 50 percent of its code, according to its Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi.
Anthropic’s rise reshapes the AI landscape
Anthropic’s rise due to its code generation capabilities is not only impacting Google but also OpenAI. The company recently purged its Sora AI video generation model to focus resources on code and enterprise work. It has also recently released a massive update to its coding tool, Codex. It can now access any app on your computer, run them autonomously, and complete tasks rather than just writing code.
Anthropic’s popularity is also reflected in its numbers, with the company’s run-rate revenue surpassing $30 billion in March 2026, up from $9 billion in 2025. However, despite this growth, many users feel that the AI company is degrading Claude’s performance, doubt its ability to handle complex tasks, and are looking for alternatives.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin is back at leading the company's AI effort when it is facing increasing competition from Anthropic. The company's co-founder was at the forefront of the company’s AI effort when it was caught off guard by the sudden popularity of generative AI after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022. At the time, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly issued a "code red" within the company, and it seems like the company is back in a similar situation.
It has now assembled a team of researchers and engineers, called strike team, to improve its AI coding models to take on Anthropic. The latest move comes due to recent Anthropic AI model releases, which have prompted Google to increase its focus on code-writing abilities, as per a report by The Information. The report says researchers at the company believe their Gemini AI models are not at par with Anthropic coding tools and need improvement.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Google DeepMind Chief Technology Officer Koray Kavukcuoglu, who are directly involved in the strike team, have asked staffers to catch up with AI agents.
Focus on self-improving AI systems
The company wants to improve its coding abilities for tasks such as writing a new piece of software by reading through files and understanding users' intent, with an aim to create an AI that can improve itself. Google’s primary focus is centred on creating models that can be used internally and trained on its code.
While these models cannot be released publicly as Google code differs from general-purpose code, they can help in creating other models for public release. Brin has also written to Google’s employees to use internal agents for complex, multi-step tasks.
In comparison to its competition, Google is way behind when it comes to using AI tools to write code. For comparison, Anthropic’s code is fully written using AI, as per Boris Cherny, Claude Code head, whereas Google uses coding agents to write about 50 percent of its code, according to its Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi.
Anthropic’s rise reshapes the AI landscape
Anthropic’s rise due to its code generation capabilities is not only impacting Google but also OpenAI. The company recently purged its Sora AI video generation model to focus resources on code and enterprise work. It has also recently released a massive update to its coding tool, Codex. It can now access any app on your computer, run them autonomously, and complete tasks rather than just writing code.
Anthropic’s popularity is also reflected in its numbers, with the company’s run-rate revenue surpassing $30 billion in March 2026, up from $9 billion in 2025. However, despite this growth, many users feel that the AI company is degrading Claude’s performance, doubt its ability to handle complex tasks, and are looking for alternatives.
