$24,000 AI experiment ports TypeScript compiler to Rust
Microsoft's Go rewrite gets some competition, with a developer claiming his port runs twice as fast
In a bold experiment, developer and YouTuber Theo Browne utilized AI agents to transfer Microsoft's TypeScript compiler to the Rust programming language. The project, dubbed TS_Rust, was deemed impractical a year prior, but rapid advancements in AI models have made such tasks possible. By leveraging OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol and GPT-6 Astra, Browne burned approximately $400,000 worth of API-equivalent tokens, achieving around 84% compatibility.
However, it was Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 that ultimately produced a fully functional implementation, consuming around $24,000 worth of tokens. The resulting Rust-based TypeScript exhibited nearly 100% compatibility with TypeScript conformance tests. Browne posits that this implementation could reduce memory-intensive environments for AI agents and potentially run within Google's V8 engine, providing a less costly alternative to Microsoft's Go-based TypeScript compiler.
As powerful models become increasingly prevalent, the cost of inference is expected to dominate developer environments, making a more efficient TypeScript compiler a timely and valuable development.
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