Microsoft's unusual test: Claude Code from Anthropic in focus
Microsoft intensively tests Anthropic's AI dev tool Claude Code. Thousands of employees use it for products like Windows and Microsoft 365.
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When a baker regularly buys a large bag of rolls from a competitor, he is either conducting intensive market observation – or his needs are not fully met by his own product. Similar questions arise for observers looking at Microsoft. According to information from the US tech portal The Verge, the software giant is increasingly relying on the AI development tool Claude Code from its competitor Anthropic. Primarily for comparison, it is said. But the intensity of the test is nevertheless unusual.
According to The Verge, several thousand employees from various development teams are using Claude Code. Tests have been running in the CoreAI team for months. The "Experiences + Devices Division" has now also been asked to install Claude Code. This team is responsible for Microsoft's important products Windows, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, Bing, Edge, and Surface.
Unusual fondness for the competition?
Microsoft's choice of tools is surprising because the company has its own tool in GitHub Copilot. The software, developed in collaboration with OpenAI, remains the primary AI coding tool, Microsoft emphasizes.
Nevertheless, Microsoft seems to have developed a fondness for the competitor's product. While software engineers are supposed to use and compare both tools, designers and project managers without programming experience are encouraged to experiment with it, for example to get prototypes off the ground. According to the report, a possible later distribution of Claude Code to Azure customers is also conceivable.
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Special deal with Anthropic
Industry magazine The Information counts Microsoft among Anthropic's top customers. Both companies have entered into a special agreement that obliges Anthropic to use $30 billion worth of computing capacity from Microsoft's Azure cloud. In return, Microsoft credits the costs for its own use of Anthropic's models against sales quotas for Anthropic's Azure usage. This is unusual, as normally only its own products and those from the partnership with OpenAI would be promoted in this way.
(mki)
