With Friends Like These…

Microsoft has a new competitor in the spreadsheet business.

And this one comes with a rather awkward financial relationship.

On Tuesday, Anthropic unveiled Claude Sheets, an AI-powered spreadsheet tool that lets teams create, edit, and collaborate without ever opening Excel.

Microsoft shares fell more than 2% that day, although a broader tech selloff also weighed on the stock.

✱ The interesting part? Microsoft has a financial stake in the company challenging its Office business.

Last year, Microsoft agreed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic.

In return, Anthropic committed to purchasing $30 billion worth of computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

And there’s plenty worth fighting over.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Excel is suddenly in trouble. Decades of corporate habits are hard to undo.

But Microsoft now finds itself in an unusual position.

Its newest Office challenger is also one of its biggest cloud customers.

Here’s the story.⇩

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The Frenemy …

Even thought, Excel has been around since 1985, spreadsheets are still worth fighting over.

Anthropic’s latest product launch brings three new tools into Claude

…taking on tasks traditionally handled by other workplace software.

→ Claude Sheets: Create and edit spreadsheets, organize multiple tabs, and generate formulas with AI.

→ Claude Whiteboards: Turn team discussions into shared plans, diagrams, and assignments.

→ Claude Data: Build and share live dashboards using reusable data queries.

Sheets and Whiteboards are in beta testing. Data is generally available. All three are included in paid Claude plans.

Previously, a team might ask Claude to generate a spreadsheet, then move it into Excel to make changes and collaborate.

Now, Anthropic wants that work to stay inside Claude.

!!! Fewer trips between applications. More reasons to keep paying Anthropic.

And Microsoft isn’t the only company with something to think about.

KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader sees potential overlap with Monday.com MNDY ( ▼ 0.22% )  , Asana ASAN ( ▲ 2.4% )  , and Zoom ZM ( ▲ 7.39% ) , particularly in project planning and collaboration.

But …

✱ Creating a project plan is relatively easy. Keeping that plan updated, assigning work, managing permissions, and tracking progress across an entire company is considerably harder.

The question is whether Claude can become the place where work gets done.↓

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$111.2 Billion!!!

That’s how much its Microsoft 365 commercial and consumer businesses generated in fiscal 2026, according to Yahoo Finance.

For perspective, Microsoft’s total revenue was $331.8 billion.

→ Commercial Microsoft 365: Nearly $102 billion, up 16% from the previous year.

→ Consumer Microsoft 365: $9.2 billion, up 24%.

Together, those categories account for roughly one-third of Microsoft’s annual revenue.

And the commercial business extends well beyond Excel and Word. It includes services such as Teams and SharePoint, deeply embedded in how companies communicate, store information, and manage work.

→ That makes replacing Microsoft considerably more complicated than building a better spreadsheet.

Stifel analyst Brad Reback doesn’t expect Anthropic’s new tools to meaningfully affect Microsoft 365 growth anytime soon.

His reasoning? Enterprise integrations, security requirements, and the difficulty of replacing software that companies already depend on.

Microsoft also has its own AI assistant, Copilot, which it has been using to sell more capabilities to existing customers.

Claude may have found its way into the office. Getting the entire company to move desks is another matter.↓

A Rival on the Payroll…

In November 2025, Microsoft agreed to invest up to $5 billion in Anthropic.

Anthropic, meanwhile, committed to purchasing $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

→ Microsoft: Helps finance Anthropic’s growth.
→ Anthropic: Pays Microsoft to power its AI models.
→ Both companies: Now compete for some of the same workplace software customers.

It’s an unusual arrangement, even by Silicon Valley standards.

Microsoft could benefit from Anthropic’s growing demand for computing power while facing more competition for its Office customers.

And the rivalry extends beyond spreadsheets.

Anthropic’s new collaboration tools overlap with products from Monday.com, Asana, and Zoom, according to KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader.

But those companies have something Claude’s new tools don’t yet fully replicate: established systems for managing projects, permissions, and day-to-day operations.

Creating the work is getting easier. Owning the place where that work happens is still a very valuable business. ↓

The Tree Doesn’t Grow Overnight…

Stifel’s Brad Reback doesn’t expect Claude’s new tools to meaningfully affect Microsoft 365 growth in the foreseeable future.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the competitive threat can be ignored.

→ For Anthropic: Every task completed inside Claude is one less reason to open another application.

→ For Microsoft: Every existing customer relationship is an opportunity to sell more Copilot capabilities.

The competition is moving beyond who has the smartest AI assistant.

It’s becoming a contest over building a better tool can attract customers.

The spreadsheet wars have begun.

* Sources: Yahoo Finance, November 10, 2026; Markel’s Q3 2026 reported holdings.

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