Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP)—dubbed “USB-C for AI”—is quickly becoming the industry standard. OpenAI and Microsoft have publicly embraced MCP, and Google has begun standing up its own managed MCP servers.
MCP lets AI agents connect to external tools and data sources through a standardized protocol. Think of it as a universal connector that allows any AI to work with any tool.
The Adoption Numbers
97 million monthly SDK downloads
10,000+ active servers
~2,000 entries in MCP Registry
First-class support in ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Cursor, VS Code
Why Competitors Adopted Anthropic’s Protocol
In December 2025, Anthropic donated MCP to the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation. By making it neutral infrastructure:
Competitors felt safe adopting it
Network effects accelerated
It became the de facto standard before alternatives could emerge
Strategic Implication
The foundation layer war is over. MCP won. The fight now moves to higher layers: commerce protocols (Google’s UCP vs. OpenAI’s ACP) and attribution systems.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
