Chinese tech and retail giant Alibaba (BABA) will ban Claude Code, the artificial intelligence coding agent developed by American AI firm Anthropic. The move restricts workers from using the AI tool and comes as the U.S. and China continue to clash over AI security concerns and tech export controls.

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Alibaba Stock Remains Under Pressure After Issuing Claude Code Ban

Shares of Alibaba remained in decline after inside sources said the retailer will restrict access to Claude Code in the workplace. The stock has also been hovering around $96.1 after recent news of insider selling and legal troubles pushed the price down. 

Reports say the recent ban was imposed due to fears of backdoor risks–security threats where hidden code allows outside parties to access a system without permission. As a result, Alibaba has placed Claude Code on a high-risk list and will officially cut access to it for its office workers on July 10. 

The move comes a few months after Anthropic reported Alibaba for its “brazen” and “illicit” data harvesting campaign. The AI company accused Alibaba of executing the largest distillation attack in history against its Claude models. Anthropic said the retailer had allegedly deployed 25,000 fraudulent accounts to send Claude millions of requests and use the answers to train its own Qwen AI models.

Moreover, this is not the first time a major tech giant has curbed access to Anthropic’s AI tools. Last week, U.S. tech giant Meta Platforms (META) shut down Claude Code and Codex, the AI coding tool from ChatGPT creator OpenAI, citing concerns that AI outputs could be used to train rival models. 

Additionally, U.S. banking giant Goldman Sachs (GS) cut access to Claude for its Hong Kong base in April, and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) did the same in June. They both cited licensing and data-security concerns. 

More Chinese Tech Firms Cut Ties With Anthropic’s AI Tools

Meanwhile, other Chinese tech firms like ByteDance and Ant Group have pulled the plug on Claude after Anthropic enforced its terms of service. The AI firm had updated its service policy last year, banning firms from directly or indirectly using Claude from restricted regions like China. 

Specifically, ByteDance had shut down Claude models on its Singapore-based coding app, Trae, in 2025 after Anthropic began restricting service to Chinese-owned firms. For Ant Group, Anthropic had clamped down on its models, which had been providing employees with corporate Claude accounts through its Singapore intranet.

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