Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) has reportedly instructed its sales team on Tuesday to position in-house AI models above rival offerings from OpenAI, Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google and Anthropic, as part of a fiscal 2027 strategy session.
Executive Vice President Jay Parikh told staff, “Everyone else is selling parts — we’re selling the full end-to-end system,” according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.
Copilot vs. Claude Comparison Raises Eyebrows
According to the report, Copilot chief Jacob Andreou compared Copilot with Anthropic’s Claude, saying it was slower, less accurate and did not have strong security integrations across Microsoft’s Office apps.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.
The strategy session focused on promoting Microsoft’s in-house AI models as more efficient and less expensive than competing offerings. The rivals it compared itself with, OpenAI and Anthropic, have long provided the AI models used in many of Microsoft’s own products.
The change comes after Microsoft ended OpenAI’s exclusivity through a deal in April. It also follows a recent report that Microsoft is replacing OpenAI and Anthropic models in Word and Excel as part of an effort to reduce costs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said companies “pay for intelligence twice” when they rely on third-party AI, warning that using outside models can expose valuable business knowledge to external vendors.
Meta (NASDAQ:META) also signaled plans to undercut rivals, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggesting its new Model API could be priced roughly 25% below OpenAI and Anthropic, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) analyst Doug Anmuth said on Monday.
Trading Metrics
Microsoft has a market capitalization of $2.94 trillion, with a 52-week high of $555.45 and a 52-week low of $349.20.
Over the past 12 months, the large-cap stock has dropped 21.75%.
Price Action: The stock had closed on Wednesday at $395.63, up 2.78%, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that MSFT is experiencing medium-term consolidation along with short and long-term upward movement.
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