March 19 (Reuters) - OpenAI said on Thursday it will

acquire Python toolmaker Astral, as the ChatGPT owner looks to

strengthen its portfolio against rival Anthropic and gain more

share in the artificial intelligence coding tools market.

The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the

deal, but said the acquisition will bring Astral's suite of

developer tools into the Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed startup's AI

coding system, Codex.

Sam Altman-led OpenAI, which launched its Codex platform

last year, is stepping up competition, as Anthropic has gained

traction with its Claude Code tool among software developers.

OpenAI launched a desktop app for its coding tools earlier

this year.

The company said on Thursday that Codex has more than 2

million weekly active users, marking a three-fold increase in

users and a five-fold jump in usage since the beginning of the

year.

Astral has become a major player in the Python community.

Its tools are designed to improve speed and reliability in

Python development.

"OpenAI will continue supporting our open-source tools after

the deal closes," Astral founder and CEO Charlie Marsh said in a

statement.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini

Ganguli)