The Information: Meta and Microsoft work to wean employees off Claude; Meta's Claude Code users halve to ~30K
The Information reported on Oct 5, 2026 that Meta and Microsoft are cutting their employees' use of Anthropic's Claude in favour of in-house AI tools. The number of Meta employees using Claude Code reportedly fell to about 30,000 from about 60,000 earlier in 2026. Microsoft, which had projected about $1B of internal Claude spending, reportedly cut that level by more than a third and urged staff to use its own tools.
Key facts
- Meta: employees using Claude Code ~30K, down from ~60K earlier in 2026, as Meta pushes internal tools (Meta launched its own coding product on Muse Spark 1.2 in August)
- Microsoft: had projected ~ $1B of spending on internal Claude use; cut that level by over a third and urged staff to use Microsoft's own AI tools
- Earlier step (The Verge's Tom Warren, May 2026, via Yahoo): Microsoft's Experiences + Devices division (Windows, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, Surface) was told to stop using Claude Code by the end of June and move to GitHub Copilot CLI
- Motive reported: cost cutting and preference for proprietary tools
- Context: Microsoft is also an Anthropic compute partner (~$31.4B commitment in Anthropic's leaked IPO draft)
What happened
The Information's article is paywalled. The figures here come from its Techmeme headline and from secondary summaries (GuruFocus, Seeking Alpha, Rallies), so details and exact wording are unverified. Two of the largest technology companies, both building their own models and coding tools, are steering staff away from Claude Code, which had become a default internal coding agent at many firms.
Why it matters
Big-tech internal seats were a visible part of Claude Code's growth. The report lands weeks before Anthropic's planned IPO, whose leaked draft flagged customer concentration and the risk that large customers can cut spending at any time.
Changelog
- 2026-10-05: created (sweep 2026-10-05; paywalled original, built from secondary summaries)
Related events
- Meta launches Muse Code terminal coding agent powered by Muse Spark 1.2 ★★★
- Reuters obtains Anthropic's IPO prospectus: $2T+ target valuation, $4.6B 2025 revenue, 80 pages of risk factors incl. existential risk ★★★★
- The Information: Anthropic ends enterprise discounts as soon as customers use up contracted tokens; OpenAI gives a grace window ★★
Sources (6)
- pressThe Information: Meta and Microsoft work to wean staff off Anthropic's Claude (paywalled)
- pressSeeking Alpha: Meta, Microsoft scale back employee use of Claude (report)
- pressGuruFocus: Meta and Microsoft reduce employee use of Claude AI
- pressRallies: Meta and Microsoft reportedly work to wean staff off Claude
- pressYahoo Tech: Microsoft is ditching Claude Code for Copilot CLI (May 15, 2026)
- discussionTechmeme discussion
id: 2026-10-05-meta-microsoft-cut-staff-claude-use · updated 2026-10-05 · open in the interactive timeline