Claude completes first formalized proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in 13M+ lines of Lean
dioscuri · x · 2026-09-05
Anthropic announced that last month Claude completed the first formalized proof of Fermat's Last Theorem — one of the most famous theorems in mathematics, first proven by Sir Andrew Wiles in 1995 — a project experts expected to take many years.
Key facts:
- The proof totals over 13 million lines of code, the largest Lean proof ever written
- It provides machine verification and proves the 29,000+ other theorems the proof depends on
- Observers call it the most significant result for mathematics yet, since automating formalization means accelerating mathematical progress itself
Formalization — converting mathematical reasoning into computer-verifiable form for proof assistants like Lean — has long been a bottleneck, often taking years to validate a major proof. This result shows AI is breaking through it.
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