Big Week for OpenAI .
GPT-5.5 landed. OpenAI broke up with Microsoft (sort of). Anthropic tried to announce something exciting and then immediately fell over. And Peter (OpenClaws founder) is absolutely flying.
Before we get into it - if you're not already in the Discord, get in here.
👉 https://discord.gg/vaB8KXxjFa
GPT-5.5 IS HERE & IT'S BETTER THAN OPUS 4.7 ON ALMOST EVERYTHING!
OpenAI dropped GPT-5.5 on April 23rd. Codename "Spud".
Anthropic released Opus 4.7 just a week earlier - it was supposed to be their best model yet. GPT-5.5 landed and immediately beat it on most tests.
Here's the simple version of how they compare.
GPT-5.5 is better at research, reasoning, maths, and scientific tasks. It's also significantly better at using tools and completing tasks autonomously - which is exactly what matters for agent setups. If you're running OpenClaw on GPT, it'll feel more reliable and finish things more cleanly than before.
Opus 4.7 still has one real advantage: deep, complex coding. Long sessions, big codebases, multi-step builds - Claude still handles that better. Outside of that, GPT-5.5 is ahead.
One thing worth flagging on cost: Claude is actually cheaper. GPT-5.5 is 17% more expensive per response than Opus 4.7. Worth knowing if you're running an agent at any kind of scale. Although I expect the usage cost to come down soon.
GPT-5.5 is live now in ChatGPT and the API. Builders who've been on Claude are switching or testing it. That's the strongest signal of all - i’m even going to follow it and change my setup… Because i’m pretty fedup of Anthropic atm!
THE MICROSOFT DEAL - OPENAI GOES CLOUD-AGNOSTIC
This one flew under the radar a bit. But it’s pretty interesting.
OpenAI and Microsoft restructured their deal on April 27th. Microsoft's exclusive API licence is gone. The model IP licence still runs until 2032 - but it's no longer exclusive. OpenAI can now offer its models to any cloud provider.
Twenty-four hours later, AWS announced OpenAI models on Bedrock.
That $50B Amazon investment deal? It was stuck because Microsoft had first-right-of-refusal on all API access. That's now unlocked. OpenAI is going cloud-agnostic - and doing it fast.
For builders this means choice. Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, whoever. OpenAI models wherever you want them. It's a proper shift in how the infrastructure layer works.
ANTHROPIC GETS CREATIVE - ADOBE, BLENDER, ABLETON & MORE
On April 28th, Anthropic announced Claude connectors for creative tools. Not just Adobe - a whole coalition: Blender, Autodesk, Adobe, Ableton, Splice.
The idea is that Claude works inside the tools creative professionals already use. Not a separate app. Not a chat interface you copy-paste from. Actually inside the software.
For Adobe specifically - that means Creative Cloud. Agentic workflows from inside Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere. Adobe had been quiet on the AI front for a while - a lot of people had written them off. This is a meaningful answer.
Honestly, this is smart positioning from Anthropic. They're not trying to replace the tools. They're embedding Claude into the workflow. That's a much harder product to rip out once it's there and likely keeps everyone addicted to their flows.
ANTHROPIC'S OUTAGE ISSUES CONTINUE
Shock, it’s happening again.
April 28th, 17:51 UTC - the same afternoon as the creative partnership announcement - Claude went down. API errors across the board. Claude.ai offline. Claude Code login broken. Over 12,000 users reporting issues before it was fixed.
They spend weeks setting up a big creative industry play, brief the press, drop the announcement - and then immediately can't keep the lights on.
This isn't a one-off either, as we know. Reliability has become an actual pattern for Anthropic. And when you're trying to win enterprise creative clients - the kind that need uptime guarantees - this is the thing that kills deals.
PETER STEINBERGER IS MOVING AT GOD SPEED AGAIN…
If you've been paying attention to his X (link here) tooling this week, you've noticed the pace.
wacrawl. gogcli. birdclaw. summarize. codexbar. All in the space of a few days.
CodexBar is probably the one getting the most attention - a macOS menu bar app that shows your Codex and Claude Code usage stats without having to log in anywhere. The community already built a Windows port. That's how fast things move around Peter right now.
On the core OpenClaw side: the update installer now uses a verified temp prefix before swapping into place. Boring to read. Very annoying when it was broken. No more mixed old/new installs mid-update.
I'M BUILDING AN AGENTIC COMMUNITY & YOU SHOULD JOIN!
If you're building with OpenClaw, Hermes, Claude Code, or anything agentic - come join the Discord. We've got builders, discussions, resources, and I'm actively in there taking suggestions for what to cover next.
If you've read this far and still haven't joined, what are you doing?!
Join here: https://discord.gg/vaB8KXxjFa
THIS WEEK'S LINKS
GPT-5.5
- Introducing GPT-5.5 - OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5-5/
- OpenAI releases GPT-5.5 - TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/23/openai-chatgpt-gpt-5-5-ai-model-superapp/
OpenAI x Microsoft
- Microsoft ends exclusive licence - Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/microsoft-end-exclusive-license-openais-technology-2026-04-27/
- OpenAI brings models to AWS - CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/28/openai-brings-models-to-aws-after-ending-exclusivity-with-microsoft.html
Anthropic Creative Connectors
- Claude for Creative Work - Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-creative-work
- Adobe for creativity connector - Adobe blog: https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2026/04/28/adobe-for-creativity-connector
- Anthropic releases 9 Claude connectors - 9to5Mac: https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/28/anthropic-releases-9-new-claude-connectors-for-creative-tools-including-blender-and-adobe/
Anthropic Outage
- Anthropic deploys fix after major outage: https://www.asatunews.co.id/en/anthropic-claude-ai-service-outage
- Claude suffers alarming outage - Rolling Out: https://rollingout.com/2026/04/28/anthropic-claude-outage-users-locked-out/
OpenClaw
- Enterprise deployments - TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/28/red-hats-openclaw-maintainer-just-made-enterprise-claw-deployments-a-lot-safer/
- OpenClaw releases - GitHub: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases
Thanks for reading WeeklyClaw #011.
Don’t forget to join the community - https://discord.gg/vaB8KXxjFa
Same time next week. 🦞
- Jordy (@jordymaui on X)