Anthropic Says New AI Models Maintain Context and Sustain Focus

Anthropic has introduced the next generation of its artificial intelligence (AI) models, Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4.

“These models advance our customers’ AI strategies across the board: Opus 4 pushes boundaries in coding, research, writing and scientific discovery, while Sonnet 4 brings frontier performance to everyday use cases as an instant upgrade from Sonnet 3.7,” the company said in a Thursday (May 22) announcement .

The company said Claude Opus 4 is its most powerful model yet and “the world’s best coding model,” adding that it delivers sustained performance on complex, long-running tasks and agent workflows.

Claude Sonnet 4 balances performance and efficiency, according to the announcement. It provides a significant upgrade to its predecessor, Claude Sonnet 3.7, and offers superior coding and reasoning while responding more precisely to user instructions.

Both models can use web search and other tools during extended thinking, use tools in parallel, and extract and save key facts from local files, per the announcement. In addition, both models offer two modes, including near-instant responses and extended thinking.

“These models are a large step toward the virtual collaborator — maintaining full context, sustaining focus on longer projects, and driving transformational impact,” the announcement said.

It was reported Friday that Anthropic received a $2.5 billion, five-year revolving credit facility to pay for upfront costs as demand for AI ratchets up.

The credit facility adds to the company’s momentum following its March funding round, which valued it at $61.5 billion and will support its rapid expansion and efforts to strengthen its balance sheet.

Anthropic said in the Friday report that its annualized revenue reached $2 billion in the first quarter, double what it posted in the prior period.

The company announced April 28 that it created an Economic Advisory Council composed of “distinguished economists” to advise it on AI ’s effects on labor markets, economic growth and wider socioeconomic systems.

“As AI capabilities continue to advance, it has never been more critical to understand the opportunities and challenges this evolution presents to jobs and how we work,” Anthropic said in an announcement. “The Council will provide important input on areas where we can expand our research for the Economic Index.”