Buzz about the move, which could be officially announced, is seen as part of Microsoft’s effort to reduce its reliance on OpenAI’s technology.
Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to expand its artificial intelligence capacity and reduce dependence on ChatGPT developer OpenAI, which helped it take an early lead in the technology driving Wall Street’s frantic rally.
For years, Microsoft has delivered AI-powered tools for writing, summarization, and more through OpenAI’s stack; under the new plan, it will tap both Anthropic and OpenAI technology, according to the report, which cites unnamed sources.
Microsoft will pay its cloud rival Amazon Web Services to access the Anthropic models, according to the report. AWS is one of Anthropic’s largest shareholders.
To be sure, Microsoft already offers a spate of AI models, from makers including France’s Mistral AI and China’s DeepSeek, as well as Meta and XAI, to customers of its Azure cloud platform.
Microsoft is reportedly developing in-house AI chips to power cloud workloads, and earlier this week announced a multi-billion-dollar deal for renting cloud infrastructure from Nebius.
The Information reported that developers making Office AI features found Anthropic’s latest models outperformed those from OpenAI in automating tasks such as financial functions in Excel or generating PowerPoint presentations.
OpenAI’s launch of GPT-5 is a step up in quality, but Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 performs better in creating PowerPoint presentations that are more aesthetically pleasing, according to the report.
On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment was ‘bearish’ for both Microsoft and Amazon as of late Tuesday. Shares of the companies have risen 18.3% and 8.8%, respectively, year to date.
Microsoft plans to announce the Anthropic partnership in the coming weeks. According to the report, the price of AI tools in Office will remain the same.
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