Thousands of Microsoft developers used Anthropic's Claude Code for programming. Now the company is revoking licenses and betting on GitHub Copilot CLI.
Microsoft will cancel most internal Claude Code licenses and move its developers to GitHub Copilot CLI, the company's own command-line tool. That's according to The Verge. The change hits the Experiences and Devices team, which is responsible for Windows, Microsoft 365, Outlook, Teams, and Surface, among others. Claude Code usage there is expected to end by late June.
Just last December, Microsoft gave thousands of employees access to Anthropic's AI coding tool. Even designers and project managers with no programming experience were encouraged to experiment with it. According to The Verge, Claude Code proved extremely popular internally - possibly too popular: developers preferred it over Copilot CLI, effectively undermining Microsoft's own product.
Officially, Microsoft frames the reversal as a strategic consolidation. "Claude Code was an important part of that learning," Rajesh Jha, executive vice president of the Experiences and Devices group, wrote in an internal memo, according to The Verge. Copilot CLI, however, offers the advantage of letting Microsoft work directly with GitHub to tailor the product for its own repositories and security requirements, he added.
