Anthropic loses 3 Claude Code team members, just weeks before its mega IPO

Anthropic's Claude Code team has lost three key members within within two weeks. Product lead Cat Wu, engineer Thariq Shihipar and desktop developer Anthony Morris have resigned just weeks before the Claude AI maker is preparing for a major initial public offering (IPO). All three were key members of Anthropic's Claude Code team, with Wu leading product development, Shihipar working on the coding assistant and Morris building its desktop version.Cat Wu announced her exit on X, saying Friday was her last day at Anthropic. Reflecting on her journey, she recalled joining the company when Claude Code was still a small internal project. “Two years ago, when Claude Code was a small internal project, I was one of the first people to try it. It worked, I was hooked, and I joined the team,” she wrote.Friday was my last day at Anthropic. Two years ago, when Claude Code was a small internal tool, I asked it to build an RL env. I steered it for tens of hours but never manually wrote a line of code. It worked, I was hooked, and I joined the team. When we first launched, most people approved every permission prompt by hand and mostly used Claude to answer questions and write tests. Today, the default is trusting Claude's judgment to auto-approve. Claude does large migrations and builds new products. Helping build Claude Code into an industry-defining product has been the journey of a lifetime. Thank you to the incredible team behind Claude Code, Cowork, and Tag. These products are the sum of thousands of great ideas from you. I'll miss working with you all. Thank you to our users for embracing a new way of working. Your constant feedback shaped so much of what we shipped and your stories made the work so meaningful. Excited to see what you all make next!— cat (@_catwu) November 3, 2026“Helping build Claude Code into an industry-defining product has been the journey of a lifetime,” Wu wrote, thanking the team and users for their contributions. She also thanked the teams behind Claude Code, Cowork and the company's internal tool Tag.Wu did not disclose why she was leaving or announce her next move. When an X user asked whether she would take a six-month vacation, she replied, “post agi!”, a tongue-in-cheek reference to artificial general intelligence (AGI). Wu was among the senior figures who helped shape Claude Code alongside its creator Boris Cherny. She joined Anthropic in 2024 after trying an early version of the coding assistant. The company introduced Claude Code as a research preview in February 2025. Since then, it has grown into a major product for developers, helping Anthropic compete with AI coding tools such as GitHub Copilot and Cursor.Wu also oversaw Cowork, Anthropic's AI tool designed to help people handle everyday knowledge work beyond software development.Who else has left Anthropic? Wu’s Her departure follows announcements from two other Claude Code contributors. Thariq Shihipar, who worked as an AI coding assistant for more than a year, also announced that he was leaving Anthropic. “I've left Anthropic after more than a year of working on Claude Code and seeing it scale larger than I ever imagined,” he wrote. He said he had enjoyed his time at the company and believed deeply in its mission, but wanted to take a break before moving on to something new.Anthony Morris, who created Claude Code for desktop, also announced his exit. “Yesterday was my last day at Anthropic,” he wrote on October 24. Explaining why he built the desktop version, Morris said, “I created Claude Code on desktop because I believe everyone can be a builder.” The departures come at an important time for Anthropic, which is reportedly preparing for a potential IPO later this month. The company has expanded rapidly, growing its workforce from around 940 employees at the end of 2024 to approximately 5,300 by September 2026.- Ends