Microsoft shares fell more than 2% on Tuesday and extended losses Wednesday after Anthropic unveiled a suite of workplace tools that directly challenge Microsoft Office. The new products include Claude Sheets, Claude Whiteboards, and Claude Data, the latter being the renamed and now generally available version of Claude Dashboards.
Claude Sheets is the most direct threat to Excel. It lets paid Claude subscribers create and edit workbooks from simple prompts, with multiple tabs, formulas, formatting, and drop-down menus. Users can collaborate with Claude on spreadsheets, track individual changes, and export files in XLSX or CSV formats. The tool also connects with Airtable, Asana, monday.com, and Smartsheet. Claude Whiteboards allows teams to brainstorm and organize ideas, while Claude Data helps users build and share interactive dashboards.
The launch stands out because Microsoft is deeply tied to Anthropic. Microsoft is an anchor investor in Anthropic's upcoming IPO and has agreed to purchase about $1 billion of Anthropic shares through a private placement. Anthropic has also committed to pay Microsoft up to $49.2 billion for compute capacity through 2033. Claude AI models are already available inside Excel through a partnership between the two firms, and Microsoft is building its own Copilot AI tool into its software.
Microsoft's productivity business remains large. Microsoft 365 revenue rose 17% year over year last quarter to $27.8 billion, and commercial seats grew 5%. Despite the competitive concerns, Wall Street analysts remain bullish. Evercore ISI reiterated a Buy rating with a $635 price target, while RBC Capital's Rishi Jaluria reaffirmed a Buy rating and a $640 target, citing strong fiscal results and Azure cloud growth.
Microsoft is also facing infrastructure challenges. Reuters reported that the company has urged the Trump administration to reconsider a proposed restriction on imports of Chinese optical transceivers used in data centers, warning that domestic suppliers lack sufficient capacity. Microsoft has 35 data centers under construction in the US and another 134 planned.
Anthropic began its IPO roadshow this week and aims to price the deal on November 18 at a target valuation of $1.4 trillion. Software stocks had previously sold off in the spring after Anthropic released its coding agent, Claude Code, but the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF has since risen 34% from its April 10 closing low.
