(Yicai) July 6 -- Alibaba Group Holding will ban the use of Claude Code by workers at its offices after the artificial intelligence programming tool developed by US' Anthropic was reported to have security risks from potential backdoor vulnerabilities, according to an insider at the Chinese technology giant.

Alibaba has classified Claude Code as high-risk software after a comprehensive assessment and will prohibit its use starting July 10, the source told Yicai on June 3. Employees are recommended to switch to the firm's agentic coding platform Qoder as an alternative, the person said.

Since its launch in May last year, Claude Code has become one of the world's most popular AI programming tools, with its annualized revenue exceeding USD2.5 billion as of February, according to San Francisco-based Anthropic.

However, Anthropic was hit by controversy due to its actions against Chinese users after many reported that their accounts were banned without warning since the end of last month. Some developers have also revealed that the firm has embedded a covert user identification system within the client to determine whether users are associated with China.

In addition, Anthropic submitted materials to US officials last month, accusing Hangzhou-based Alibaba of conducting large-scale distillation attacks on its Claude model. Earlier, it had also made similar accusations against Chinese AI startups DeepSeek, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax.

Alibaba previously encouraged staff to use both domestic and foreign AI tools, with programmers frequently using Claude Code, senior AI expert Guo Tao said to Yicai. However, following Anthropic's unilateral accusations of conducting model distillation attacks, along with its targeted labeling and banning of Chinese users, Alibaba faced data leakage risks and traceability concerning its research and development, so it decided to disable Claude Code, Guo noted.

The move by Alibaba could mark the beginning of a wave of risk control and regulatory adjustments among Chinese companies concerning overseas AI tools, with the internet industry likely to accelerate the shift to domestic coding alternatives, Guo stressed. This includes the development of in-house tools like Qoder, which is expected to see opportunities for large-scale implementation, Guo said.

Launched last August, Qoder has accumulated over five million users as of May, Alibaba previously said. The platform is capable of completing end-to-end autonomous development processes, ranging from requirement analysis to code deployment.

Alibaba has been continuously increasing its AI investments since the end of last year, establishing the Token Hub business group and the Token Foundry division to strengthen the structure of its AI business. In addition, Chief Executive Eddie Wu set a goal of increasing annual revenue from the commercialization of cloud and AI to USD100 billion from CNY100 billion (USD14.7 billion) within five years.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev