Meta and Microsoft pull back from Claude as Anthropic transforms from partner into competitor
Microsoft and Meta are sharply cutting internal Claude use as Anthropic becomes a competitor.
Microsoft and Meta are sharply reducing internal use of Anthropic's Claude as Anthropic becomes a competitor. Microsoft executives told employees to use GitHub Copilot and OpenAI models instead; annual Claude spending had been projected above $1 billion and was cut by more than a third, while the cloud division's monthly per-employee budget fell from $100,000 to about $10,000. Meta's Claude Code users fell from roughly 60,000 to 30,000, and Meta spent more than $105 million on Claude Code in one 28-day period while promoting Muse Code and MetaCode. Cost control and limits on Anthropic's access to Meta training data are cited alongside competition from tools such as Claude Cowork.
- Microsoft cut projected Claude spending by more than a third.
- Cloud per-employee monthly budget fell from $100,000 to about $10,000.
- Meta's Claude Code users dropped from about 60,000 to 30,000.
- Meta spent over $105 million on Claude Code in 28 days.
- Both companies are steering employees toward in-house tools.
Full article260 words · extracted from the-decoder.com · click to collapse
Oct 5, 2026
Meta and Microsoft, two of Anthropic's biggest enterprise customers, are sharply cutting internal use of Claude. At Microsoft, Claude spending had been projected at over $1 billion annually, according to The Information. But executives Scott Guthrie and Jay Parikh told employees to use in-house tools like GitHub Copilot and OpenAI's models instead. Spending was cut by more than a third, with the monthly per-employee budget in the cloud division dropping from $100,000 to about $10,000.
At Meta, Claude Code users fell from roughly 60,000 to 30,000, partly due to layoffs and partly because Meta is pushing its own tools like Muse Code and MetaCode. In one 28-day stretch, Meta spent over $105 million on Claude Code alone. Meta had already introduced AI cost-cutting measures in June.
Cost savings are one likely driver, but not the only one. Meta has little reason to keep feeding Anthropic when it wants to sell competing products and reportedly also wanted to restrict Anthropic's access to its training data. The irony of Meta worrying about someone else using its data is hard to miss. Anthropic has also grown extremely fast and is becoming a headache for incumbents. Even Microsoft has reason to worry, since tools like Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work are increasingly turning into Office alternatives.
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Text extracted automatically; images, tables and formatting may be missing. Original: https://the-decoder.com/meta-and-microsoft-pull-back-from-claude-as-anthropic-transforms-from-partner-into-competitor/