Anthropic introduced Claude Opus 5.5 on Tuesday, a model that the company says delivers performance on par with its top-tier Fable 5.1 while costing 40% less to operate than its predecessor. The launch comes amid ongoing industry debate over the pace and safety of increasingly capable AI systems.
The model underwent external testing by independent AI safety research groups Frontier Design and METR before release, according to Anthropic. It also incorporates safeguards previously reserved for the company's most advanced systems.
Anthropic reports that Opus 5.5 outperformed OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol on a software development benchmark while costing roughly one-third as much to run. Pricing is set at $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, 20% below Opus 5. The model is available through Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
In internal safety evaluations, Opus 5.5 performed better than earlier systems and was about 85% less likely than Opus 5 or Mythos 5.1 to attempt to bypass containment boundaries. Anthropic also plans to launch Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Haiku 5.5 in the coming weeks, and is expanding programs that give vetted cybersecurity and life-sciences researchers broader access to the model.
The release coincides with President Donald Trump's address to the United Nations General Assembly, where he rejected international efforts to impose new AI regulations. Trump said the US would continue advancing AI development and that government documents would refer to artificial intelligence as "super intelligence" going forward. He compared concerns about AI risks to warnings about climate change, which he has repeatedly called a hoax, and reiterated his opposition to new regulations while saying the government would monitor the industry and intervene if necessary.
Trump framed AI leadership as a key part of US competitiveness, stating that the US is leading China in the technology race. His comments come as AI companies continue to debate safety measures, with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei having previously called for greater attention to the risks associated with the pace of AI development.
In digital assets, Bitcoin traded near $86,270 on Tuesday after reaching $87,381 on Monday, its highest level since January. The broader crypto market reclaimed $3 trillion in value for the first time since January, with more than $740 billion added since the US Treasury announced an increase in buybacks of long-dated bonds.
Leverage has risen alongside the rally. Open interest in perpetual futures across tokens has climbed to nearly $160 billion, the highest level since late October last year, according to Coinglass data. More than $920 million in bearish positions were liquidated on Monday as prices climbed. Analysts warned that rising leverage could increase the risk of sharper price moves if spot demand fails to keep pace.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $999 million in net inflows on Monday, their largest single-day inflow since October 6, when Bitcoin reached its previous all-time high above $126,000.
Oil prices declined on Tuesday as Saudi crude flows increased following the restart of the East-West Pipeline and higher shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude for November settled at $99.25 a barrel, down $1.09, or 1.09%. WTI crude for October, which expires Tuesday, settled at $94.99 a barrel, down $1.19, or 1.24%.
Saudi Arabia restarted operations at its East-West Pipeline and could resume exports from Yanbu, according to a Reuters report. The pipeline had been shut after drone attacks forced the suspension of crude loadings at the port on September 13. Iran, meanwhile, said it could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US eased military pressure and lifted its blockade on Iranian ports. An Iranian official also said the country's UN delegation had authority to revive diplomacy with the US. The Strait of Hormuz handled about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies before the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
