Anthropic launched a research preview of its Model Hardware Standard (MHS) on Thursday. The specification enables AI agents to discover, communicate with, and safely control physical devices such as laboratory equipment and robots.

The initiative targets a persistent integration challenge in manufacturing and scientific labs. Anthropic noted that connecting devices from different vendors often takes weeks or months due to proprietary programming interfaces. MHS introduces a standardized software driver acting as an intermediary, using basic commands like reading or writing temperature settings.

How It Works

The standard allows AI agents to operate multiple machines simultaneously, including microscopes, liquid handlers, and robotic arms. Users can describe safety limits in natural language, enabling the system to generate reference files detailing machine capabilities and constraints.

Once connected, devices are controlled via Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol. Agents can coordinate instruments, monitor results, and adjust parameters dynamically. Early testing showed Claude adjusting a laser and observing beam movement via camera until it learned the sequence, then converting that learning into a deterministic script for single-command alignment.

Industry Adoption

Several companies are testing or adding support for MHS:

• Amazon Web Services plans support through Strands Robots.
• Automata, Danaher, Doosan Robotics, MBF Bioscience, QIAGEN, Tecan, and Universal Robots are exploring integrations.

QIAGEN is testing MHS on its nucleic acid purification platform to help AI agents troubleshoot instrument problems. Tecan is adding support to its Fluent liquid-handling systems.

What the Numbers Show

The operational reality of current AI hardware control reveals a significant dependency on human oversight. While Anthropic demonstrated Claude’s ability to learn physical sequences, Genentech researchers had to intervene to clarify that foaming in protein samples was a physical issue rather than a software bug. This indicates that despite standardized communication protocols, AI agents currently lack sufficient contextual understanding of physical phenomena to operate fully autonomously without expert validation.

Limitations and Next Steps

Anthropic acknowledged that Claude’s understanding of the physical world remains imperfect. The technology currently works only with hardware possessing a programmable interface. The company plans to use the research preview for additional safety evaluations and is working with manufacturers to expand compatibility.

Anthropic’s Claude generated an estimated $97.2 million in mobile consumer revenue in July, up nearly 1,200% from $7.5 million in January, according to exclusive estimates from AppMagic provided to Benzinga.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT still dominates the mobile market with estimated July revenue of $312.2 million. However, its revenue grew just 28% over the same period.

What the Numbers Show

The financial gap between the two rivals has narrowed sharply. In January, Claude generated roughly 3 cents for every dollar of ChatGPT mobile revenue. By July, that ratio climbed to 31 cents. This divergence highlights a shift in market dynamics: while ChatGPT maintains volume dominance, Claude is capturing a significantly larger share of consumer spending growth.

AI Race Shifts From Downloads to Dollars

Claude remains smaller than ChatGPT by download volume, recording an estimated 16.6 million downloads in July compared with 77.8 million for ChatGPT. However, downloads and revenue are moving in opposite directions for Claude. Its downloads fell 3.5% from June, while its mobile revenue rose 8.8%.

This pattern reflects a broader trend across the wider AI app market. Downloads among the top 10 AI apps fell about 14% between January and July, while their combined monthly revenue jumped 68% to $487.3 million. This suggests competition is shifting from acquiring users to monetizing existing ones.

These figures capture only part of each company’s total revenue. AppMagic tracks consumer spending through iOS and Google Play apps, excluding web subscriptions, enterprise contracts, and API sales.

Claude Starts Gaining on ChatGPT With Consumers

Anthropic built much of its early momentum with developers and enterprise customers. Recent mobile revenue growth indicates Claude is becoming a more meaningful consumer business. Polymarket traders currently give Claude a 69% chance of being the top AI model at the end of 2026, versus 11% for ChatGPT.

OpenAI remains competitive. Artificial Analysis ranks GPT-5.6 Sol just one point behind Claude Fable 5 on its Intelligence Index, estimating Sol costs less than half as much per million tokens.

The Next Battle Is Wall Street

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei led research at OpenAI before co-founding Anthropic in 2021. Both companies reportedly filed confidentially for U.S. IPOs. Traders favor Anthropic, assigning it a 95% chance of completing an IPO before OpenAI on Polymarket, with roughly $320,000 traded on contracts running through end-2027.

Anthropic plans to publicly unveil its IPO prospectus shortly after Labor Day, with a listing potentially following in late September or early October, per The Information.

The rivalry extends to major tech backers. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) owns roughly 27% of OpenAI. Anthropic’s backers include Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which plans to invest up to $40 billion, and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN), with a total potential commitment of $33 billion.