--- id: "2026-10-12-the-information-microsoft-2b-anthropic-copilot-lamanna" url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-12-the-information-microsoft-2b-anthropic-copilot-lamanna/" as_of: "2026-10-12T22:30:00+02:00" date: "2026-10-12" date_precision: day category: business importance: 3 confidence: medium status: [Partly confirmed] sources: 5 editor: Adam Bicz human_review: null version: null --- As of: 2026-10-12 22:30 CEST. Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code). Human editor: Adam Bicz. Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-12-the-information-microsoft-2b-anthropic-copilot-lamanna/ # The Information: Microsoft is on track to pay Anthropic more than $2B a year for Claude in Copilot; profile of Office chief Charles Lamanna The Information reported on Oct 12, 2026, citing one source, that Microsoft is on track to pay Anthropic more than $2 billion a year for models that power Copilot, four times the roughly $500 million a year it reported in January. The figure appears in a profile of Charles Lamanna, the executive who runs Microsoft 365 apps and Copilot, who pushed Satya Nadella to buy Claude despite its higher cost and whom senior executives name as a possible successor to Nadella. ## Key facts - Source: The Information (Aaron Holmes), Oct 12, 2026, paywalled; this entry is written from the Techmeme headline and AI Weekly's summary - A source said Microsoft is 'on track to pay Anthropic more than $2B per year'; one outlet, one anonymous source - In January 2026 The Information put the same spending at about $500M a year (per PYMNTS) - Lamanna made the case while customers complained that Copilot was, in the outlet's words, 'buggy and not good enough at automating work in Excel or PowerPoint' - Anthropic's models did better at tasks such as automating financial functions in Excel and generating PowerPoint decks; Claude is blended with OpenAI models in Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint - Lamanna is still 'weighing Anthropic and OpenAI models to improve capabilities and margins' - Lamanna took over the Office teams on Oct 1, 2026, when Microsoft announced that LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 chief Ryan Roslansky is leaving (Microsoft blog) - Several senior Microsoft executives name Lamanna as a potential successor to CEO Satya Nadella - Not stated in the summaries: what Microsoft buys (API inference or reserved capacity) and how the cost is shared ## What happened The Information published a profile of Charles Lamanna, who already led Copilot and took over the Office teams on Oct 1, 2026, when Microsoft announced that Ryan Roslansky is leaving (Nadella's memo: "Sumit Chauhan and Lan Ye will report to Charles Lamanna"). The article is paywalled and was not read directly. According to summaries of it, Lamanna persuaded Nadella to pay for Anthropic's models when customers were unhappy with Copilot's work in Excel and PowerPoint, over internal objections about cost. A source told the outlet that Microsoft's payments to Anthropic are now on track to exceed $2 billion a year. ## Why it matters Microsoft is OpenAI's long-time investor and primary cloud partner, yet its main productivity product now depends in part on OpenAI's closest rival, and the spending has grown about fourfold in nine months if both reports are right. A week earlier The Information reported that Microsoft had cut its employees' own Claude use by more than a third, so the company is both a growing customer of Anthropic and one trying to limit that bill. ## Your AI and this story - GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 165 days after its cutoff - Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 104 days after its cutoff - Gemini 3.8 Flash (training cutoff March 2026): 195 days after its cutoff - Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 134 days after its cutoff ## Sources 1. [Official Microsoft Blog: Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn leadership update (Oct 1, 2026)](https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/10/01/microsoft-365-and-linkedin-leadership-update/) (blogs.microsoft.com, official) 2. [The Information: How Microsoft's New Office Chief Fixed Copilot and Won Over Nadella](https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsofts-new-office-chief-fixed-copilot-won-nadella) (theinformation.com, press) 3. [Techmeme headline (Oct 12, 2026)](https://www.techmeme.com/261012/p23) (techmeme.com, press) 4. [AI Weekly: Microsoft on Track to Pay Anthropic $2B+ a Year for Copilot](https://aiweekly.co/alerts/the-information-microsoft-on-track-to-pay-anthropic-2b-per-year-as-copilot) (aiweekly.co, press) 5. [PYMNTS (Jan 2026): Microsoft Spending on Anthropic Approaches $500 Million a Year](https://www.pymnts.com/artificial-intelligence-2/2026/microsoft-spending-on-anthropic-approaches-500-million-a-year/) (pymnts.com, press) ## Changes - 2026-10-12 (filed): Created (evening). Written from summaries; the original is paywalled ## Related - 2026-10-12: [Microsoft announces Maia 300, its third in-house AI chip, and plans multi-gigawatt Maia deployments from 2027](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-12-microsoft-maia-300/index.md) - 2026-10-10: [Nadella's X Article 'Models as Insider Risks in the Super Intelligence Era'](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-10-nadella-models-as-insider-risks/index.md) - 2026-10-05: [The Information: Meta and Microsoft work to wean employees off Claude](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-05-meta-microsoft-cut-staff-claude-use/index.md) - 2026-09-25: [Microsoft unveils the 'new Copilot' with Home, Code and Autopilot agents, offering Astra and Fable models](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-09-25-microsoft-new-copilot-home-code-autopilot/index.md) - 2026-04-27: [Microsoft and OpenAI restructure partnership, drop the AGI clause and exclusivity](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-04-27-microsoft-openai-deal-restructured/index.md) - People: [Satya Nadella](https://postcutoff.com/person/satya-nadella/)