Anthropic CPO leaves Figma’s board after reports he will offer a competing product

Anthropic's Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger has resigned from the board of design software company Figma, following reports that he is preparing to launch a competing design tool backed by Anthropic's AI capabilities.

The Details

Krieger, who co-founded Instagram before joining Anthropic, stepped down from Figma's board after his plans to develop an AI-native design product became public. The conflict of interest was clear: sitting on the board of a company while building a direct competitor is untenable by any standard of corporate governance.

Key points from the situation:

• Krieger's departure signals that Anthropic is moving beyond foundational AI models and into application-layer software
• Figma is one of the most widely used design tools among product and engineering teams globally
• The move adds to growing concern among investors about what has been coined the "SaaSpocalypse", the fear that major AI labs will systematically displace traditional SaaS businesses by building their own products

The largest AI labs will come to dominate software businesses, according to investor sentiment driving the SaaSpocalypse thesis.

This is not an isolated incident. It reflects a broader pattern of AI infrastructure companies moving up the stack to capture more value directly, rather than simply powering third-party applications.

Why This Matters for Service Providers

MSPs and telecom resellers who bundle or recommend SaaS tools need to pay attention to this shift. If AI labs like Anthropic begin releasing their own vertical applications, the SaaS vendors you currently partner with or resell could face serious competitive pressure. That affects your customer relationships, your margins, and the stability of your vendor partnerships.

For service providers building practices around specific platforms, vendor concentration risk is rising. A tool your customers depend on today could be undercut by a better-funded, AI-native alternative within 12 to 24 months.

The upside for forward-thinking providers is that AI-native tools often require more hand-holding during deployment and integration. That creates a services opportunity if you position early. Providers who learn these emerging platforms before the market matures will have a head start on implementation revenue.

Looking Ahead

Watch for an official announcement from Krieger or Anthropic regarding the design product, which could signal the opening round of direct AI lab competition with established SaaS vendors. Service providers should audit their current vendor stack and identify which partnerships are most vulnerable to AI-native disruption.

For the full story, read the original article on TechCrunch AI.