Mike Krieger Exits Figma Board Amid Reports of Anthropic’s Competing AI Design Tool

Mike Krieger, chief product officer at leading AI research firm Anthropic, stepped down from the board of interface design platform Figma on April 14.

Krieger’s departure was formally disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by the $10 billion publicly traded software company on the exact same day that tech outlet The Information reported Anthropic’s upcoming model, Opus 4.7, will include built-in design capabilities that could directly compete with Figma’s core product offering.

Figma develops one of the world’s most widely used tools for user experience designers, who rely on the platform to build interfaces for websites and mobile applications. The company has long collaborated closely with Anthropic, integrating the AI lab’s cutting-edge models into its own product to act as smart assistants for its user base.

Krieger, who previously co-founded social media giant Instagram and AI-powered news app Artifact, took on the top product leadership role at Anthropic in 2024. He joined Figma’s board of directors less than one year before his exit.

Krieger’s exit and Anthropic’s upcoming foray into design software adds new data to a widespread investor anxiety dubbed the “SaaSpocalypse”: the fear that the world’s largest AI labs will eventually come to dominate and displace independent software businesses. This narrative has roiled public tech markets repeatedly throughout 2024; for context, iShares’ flagship software exchange-traded fund, IGV, is down nearly 18% since the start of the year.

For its part, Anthropic has become so sought-after by investors that it is currently turning away potential backers looking to buy stakes at an $800 billion valuation — more than double the valuation the company secured in its most recent funding round at the start of 2024.

Even so, major AI players like Anthropic and OpenAI still have not proven that their ultra-powerful general models can fully replicate the niche domain expertise and longstanding customer relationships built by established software brands. Figma’s share price has actually risen 5% since news of Krieger’s departure was made public, though the full market impact will likely not be clear until Opus 4.7 officially launches.