Chinese technology giant Alibaba has reportedly banned employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code for work-related software development, directing them instead to adopt its in-house AI coding platform, Qoder, according to a Reuters report.
The move comes after concerns emerged over Claude Code’s ability to inspect user environments and potentially identify users connected to China. The reported ban also signals a further escalation in the ongoing dispute between Alibaba and Anthropic over allegations that Chinese firms have used Claude’s outputs to improve competing AI models.
Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI-powered programming assistant, remains popular among Chinese developers despite the company officially restricting access to users and businesses in China. However, a source familiar with Alibaba’s internal policy told Reuters that employees have now been instructed to replace Claude Code with Qoder, Alibaba’s AI coding platform that offers code completion, autonomous development tools, and codebase analysis.
The decision follows reports from developers claiming Claude Code could examine system details such as time zones and proxy settings while embedding subtle markers into prompts sent to Anthropic’s servers. An Anthropic employee later said the feature was introduced as an experiment to detect account abuse, unauthorized resellers, and attempts to distill the company’s AI models.
The reported workplace ban comes as Anthropic accuses Alibaba of conducting large-scale AI model distillation by using Claude-generated responses to train rival systems. Alibaba has not publicly responded to the allegations.
By shifting employees to Qoder, Alibaba is expected to strengthen control over internal data, reduce reliance on foreign AI services, and ensure compliance with China’s data security regulations while expanding adoption of its own AI development ecosystem.