Microsoft Brings Anthropic Models Into Copilot, Expanding Beyond OpenAI

Microsoft (MSFT, Financials) is widening its AI play. The company said it will start using Anthropic's Claude models inside its Microsoft 365 Copilot assistant, giving businesses another option beyond OpenAI.

The change starts with Researcher, a Copilot feature that gathers information and builds reports. Enterprise customers in Microsoft's Frontier program can now choose between Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.1 and OpenAI's models, with administrators deciding whether to enable them.

The update marks a shift for Microsoft, which has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI and leaned heavily on its technology across Bing, Windows and other products. Adding Anthropic shows the company is hedging its bets as demand for generative AI accelerates.

Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI executives in 2021, was recently valued at $183 billion after raising $13 billion from investors including Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. Its Claude models are designed to handle reasoning-heavy tasks and run on Amazon and Google cloud infrastructure.

Microsoft executives said more Anthropic features will be added to Copilot over time. As the corporation grows its own AI portfolio, it is also evaluating an in-house model called MAI-1.

For now, the change gives Copilot users additional options and shows a bigger trend in the industry: Microsoft and OpenAI are still close partners, but the AI ecosystem is become more competitive and diversified.