Billionaire investor Bill Ackman remains bullish on Microsoft (MSFT) despite Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) becoming more aggressive in the enterprise software tools front.
"We think they're doing a very good job staying current in terms of enabling a new AI generation of workers," the famed value investor and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management said at Yahoo Finance Invest.
"We think Microsoft's position is really, really strong," Ackman added. "I think Microsoft's position really remains a powerful one."
Ackman began buying Microsoft earlier this year, and has said he views it as a core holding.
Anthropic, meanwhile, just sent a message to the software space led by Microsoft and its Office suite. The AI company targeted a large piece of Microsoft's business in part to justify its exorbitant valuation.
Coinciding with its roadshow launch, Anthropic released several new features late Tuesday, including Claude Whiteboards and Claude Sheets in beta. It also pushed Claude Dashboards to general availability as Claude Data.
The tools are available on all paid plans and extend Anthropic's efforts to bring more functionality directly within Claude.
The unveiling sent Microsoft shares lower amid fears of a true new rival to the tech giant's Office franchise. Shares are down 2.4% over the past five days.
"There is no question given Anthropic's unprecedented growth, deep technical expertise and substantial financial resources this new product offering bears watching," Stifel analyst Brad Reback wrote to clients.
"That said, we do NOT expect these products to have any meaningful impact on M365 growth rates for the foreseeable future based on deep enterprise integration, security/governance and MSFT's complete commitment to ensuring customer IP sovereignty."
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