Anthropic Makes Leadership Changes for Labs Expansion
Anthropic is shaking things up in the intense AI race as it expands its Labs.
On X, the busy AI firm said, “We’re expanding Labs—the team behind Claude Code, MCP, and Cowork—and hiring builders who want to tinker at the frontier of Claude’s capabilities.”
According to the announcement, Mike Krieger is stepping away from his chief product officer role to co-lead Anthropic’s Labs team. It looks like the company is doubling down on rapid product iteration through their internal incubator. Ami Vora is taking over as head of product, partnering with newly appointed CTO Rahul Patil to scale Claude across markets.
What started as a tiny two-person unit back in mid-2024 is about to become the most important division at one of AI’s hottest companies.
The $350 billion gamble
Anthropic’s Labs unit is expanding into a full-fledged incubator, with ambitious plans to double team size within six months. This pivot comes as Anthropic closes a $10 billion funding round at a $350 billion valuation.
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Coatue Management are leading the financing, positioning Anthropic as a safety-focused alternative to OpenAI’s livelier trajectory. This organizational overhaul signals something profound: Anthropic believes the AI wars will be won through disciplined execution rather than astronomical burn rates.
President Daniela Amodei didn’t mince words about why this transformation was necessary: “The speed of advancement in AI demands a different approach to how we build, how we organize, and where we focus,” she stated.
The company’s focus on shipping novel product experiences faster than rivals reveals a harsh truth about today’s market: model superiority alone won’t win the enterprise battle. Executives are betting everything on rapid prototyping and market testing through their newly expanded division.
The secret strategy
Anthropic has quietly surpassed OpenAI in enterprise market share, despite having a fraction of the consumer recognition. Data from six weeks ago shows Anthropic capturing 40% of enterprise AI spending compared to OpenAI’s 29%, according to HSBC research published in early December.
Revenue has grown 10x annually for three straight years, with 85% coming from business customers. Anthropic’s customer base went from under 1,000 to more than 300,000 enterprises in two years, with nearly 80% of Claude activity now happening outside the United States.
While OpenAI arguably chases consumer headlines, Anthropic built something enterprises actually trust. Major corporations like Novo Nordisk reduced clinical trial report compilation from 12-15 weeks to 10-15 minutes using Claude, Fortune documented six weeks ago.
Even Microsoft, OpenAI’s biggest partner, switched to Claude for Excel and PowerPoint tasks after finding it superior for enterprise workflows. That’s the kind of endorsement money can’t buy.
Bigger picture
Anthropic’s bet on rapid prototyping and market testing through their expanded Labs division signals that execution speed matters more than raw computational power.
The firm projects bringing in $26 billion in 2026 and $70 billion by 2028, Fortune reported last month. The company is on track to break even in 2028—two years ahead of OpenAI—while generating 2.1 times more revenue per dollar of computing cost.
Claude Code, Anthropic’s coding agent, is having a “main character moment” as the first true general-purpose AI agent.
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