Anything's $100M Valuation Meets Apple's Code Execution Hammer
I was debugging a particularly nasty CSS issue last week when my friend sent me a TikTok of someone building a working expense tracker app just by typing "make me an app to track my coffee spending." No code. No Stack Overflow rabbit holes. Just vibes and AI.
That app was probably built with Anything – the vibe-coding darling that just got absolutely demolished by Apple's App Store policies. Twice.
The $100M Dream Meets Reality
Let's set the stage here. Anything launched in November 2025 with a simple premise: anyone could build iOS apps using natural language prompts. No Swift knowledge required. No Xcode wrestling matches. Just describe what you want, and AI spits out working code.
The numbers were insane:
- $11 million raised at a $100 million valuation in September 2025
- Thousands of apps published to the App Store
- Everything from emergency response systems to gig economy financial trackers
CEO Dhruv Amin must have felt like he was printing money. Then December rolled around.
Apple's Silent Treatment
Apple started blocking Anything's updates in December 2025. Not just Anything – Vibecode and Replit got the same treatment. Radio silence from Cupertino.
Then came March 26, 2026: complete removal from the App Store.
The reason? Guideline 2.5.2 – Apple's rule against just-in-time code compilation and executable code generation. Basically, Apple doesn't want apps creating other apps on-device.
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Here's what kills me: Anything tried to play nice. They built a workaround to preview apps in a web browser instead of on-device. Apple rejected that too. Then gave them the full boot.
The Twice-Cooked Problem
But wait – it gets weirder. Anything briefly returned to the App Store on April 3, 2026. For like, a hot minute. Then got removed again.
Twice booted. At this point, Amin probably started looking at Android development tutorials.
Instead, they're pivoting to a desktop companion app. Smart move, actually:
- Desktop bypasses Apple's mobile restrictions entirely
- Still enables mobile app development (just not on mobile)
- Reduces platform risk significantly
- Opens doors to more powerful development features
The Real Game Here
This isn't really about Anything. It's about Apple protecting its turf while building its own AI integrations.
Notice how Apple's investing in Xcode integrations with Anthropic and OpenAI models? Yeah, that's not a coincidence. Apple wants to own the AI development pipeline on iOS, not enable scrappy startups to democratize it.
The security argument feels thin when you consider:
1. Anything already published thousands of apps that passed review
2. The app worked fine for months before enforcement
3. Apple approved it initially, then changed their mind
The Bigger Developer Story
Here's what this means for the rest of us building stuff:
- Platform risk is real – even $100M valuations can't save you from policy changes
- Desktop-first development might be making a comeback
- Apple's walled garden is getting taller walls around AI tools
- No-code/low-code demand isn't going anywhere – it's just getting redirected
The demand for vibe-coding is absolutely legitimate. Non-technical people should be able to build functional apps. But Apple wants to control exactly how that happens.
My Bet
Anything's desktop pivot will work, but they'll never recapture that mobile-native magic that made them special. Meanwhile, Apple will quietly roll out "Xcode AI Assistant" that does 80% of what Anything did, but with Apple's blessing. The real winners? Web-based development platforms that never needed Apple's permission in the first place.
