Anthropic challenges Microsoft with new Claude office tools

Anthropic, the AI giant, is set to raise funds at a valuation between $1.2trn to $1.4trn in its upcoming IPO. The company unveiled a range of office tools, Claude Sheets and Whiteboards, in beta, aimed at competing with Microsoft and Google, in anticipation of its public listing. These new tools work alongside partner applications such as Airtable, Monday.com, and Lucid.

Anthropic also rebranded Claude Dashboards to Claude Data, adding the capability to certify queries and share data live. A product leader at Anthropic described Claude Sheets as "fairly basic" for now, suggesting there's a time and place for Microsoft and Google products, especially for advanced enterprise use cases. However, they aim to demonstrate new ways of working within Claude, according to Nicolas Lin.

Additionally, Anthropic announced ways for popular products like Atlassian, Box, and Notion to be embedded into Claude, allowing users to work across these tools using the AI bot. The company is gearing up for a blockbuster initial public offering, with share prices set at $70 to $78. This valuation would make the newly public company worth between $1.26trn and $1.41trn. Anthropic's Australian retail IPO is currently open and expected to close on 17 November.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, one of OpenAI’s biggest backers, is anticipated to purchase around $1bn in Anthropic shares, while Google is expected to invest approximately $10bn. Earlier this week, the company launched updates to its Fable and Mythos models, targeting the most challenging technical issues. These advanced cybersecurity-focused models were temporarily restricted from use outside the US following their recent success.