Anthropic Claude Code Product Head Cat Wu Exits Ahead of IPO

Cat Wu, the product leader behind Anthropic's Claude Code, has left the AI startup as the company moves toward an initial public offering later this month. Wu announced her departure Tuesday on X, saying she was grateful to the Claude Code team and its users. Anthropic confirmed her exit. Wu served as head of product for Claude Code and was one of its two top public leaders alongside the tool's original creator, Boris Cherny. She joined Anthropic in summer 2024 after testing an early prototype of Claude Code. The product was released in research preview in February 2025 and quickly became one of the company's most important offerings, driving developer adoption, increasing token usage among tech customers and strengthening Anthropic's competitive position against OpenAI. Claude Code's growth gave Anthropic a widely used AI product that helped attract revenue and funding for additional compute capacity. Wu also oversaw Cowork, Anthropic's broader knowledge-work tool for non-software engineers, which builds on the same model capabilities. Her departure comes after Claude Code contributor Thariq Shihipar also left the company last month and during a critical stretch for Anthropic as it prepares for its planned public offering. Wu did not explain why she is leaving.