By - Summary
- Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 handles bigger prompts than Opus 4.5
- AI advancements trigger selloff in traditional software stocks
- Industry leaders argue AI won’t crush older software companies
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 5 – Technology startup Anthropic on Thursday launched what it described as an improved artificial intelligence model, days after its recent product advances helped trigger a selloff in traditional software stocks.
The San Francisco-based lab, backed by Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google, said its Claude Opus 4.6 model is an upgrade to the Opus 4.5 version released in November. According to Anthropic, the new model can work on tasks for longer periods and with greater reliability, while showing notable gains in coding and finance-related tasks.
Anthropic also teased the model’s ability to process up to one million pieces of data, known as “tokens,” in a single prompt—matching a capability previously claimed by Google and an earlier, less powerful Claude model. The company further previewed how the technology, through its programming tool Claude Code, could divide tasks among multiple autonomous agents to speed up work.
Seen as a disruptor in the software industry, Anthropic is aiming to remain at the technological frontier ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering, amid stiff competition from Google and OpenAI.
Software developers have embraced Anthropic’s AI for coding, while the company is also pushing for enterprise deals through products such as Claude Cowork, which is designed to execute computer tasks for white-collar workers.
The rapid deployment of AI tools has fueled market speculation that legacy software firms could lose relevance as artificial intelligence outperforms them in core functions. Shares of Salesforce, Workday, and Thomson Reuters each fell about 3% on Thursday, extending declines seen over the past week.
However, several technology industry leaders, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have pushed back against fears of disruption. They argue that specialized products, extensive data reserves, and AI adoption by established software companies will provide a strong competitive moat.
Scott White, Anthropic’s head of product for enterprise, said the company’s strategy is to connect AI with existing software tools to enhance their usefulness.
“We are excited to partner and actually lower the floor to get more value out of those tools,” White told reporters, adding that Claude Cowork is intended to serve as “the front door to getting hard work done.”
