Mike Krieger resigns from Figma board amid Anthropic competition

Mike Krieger, the chief product officer at Anthropic, has resigned from the board of interface design company Figma. The resignation occurred on April 14 and was disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by Figma, a publicly traded company valued at $10 billion. The disclosure coincided with a report from the technology publication The Information stating that Anthropic’s upcoming AI model, Opus 4.7, will include design tools that could compete with Figma’s primary software offering. Figma, which develops a popular tool for user experience designers who build interfaces for websites and apps, has collaborated closely with Anthropic to integrate the company’s AI models into its products as assistants for its users. Krieger, who previously co-founded Instagram and the AI-powered news app Artifact, joined Anthropic as its chief product officer in 2024 and joined the board of Figma less than a year ago.

Krieger’s departure serves as a concrete signal for public market investors who fear the “SaaSpocalypse”—a market thesis that the largest artificial intelligence labs developing advanced models will eventually come to dominate established software businesses. This anxiety has heavily impacted public markets at times this year. For instance, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) is down nearly 18% this year. Despite these broader market fears, Figma’s stock price rose 5% after Krieger’s departure from the board was disclosed.

The situation highlights the growing pressure on advanced AI developers like Anthropic and its competitor OpenAI. These companies must prove that their highly capable models can truly replicate the deep domain expertise and customer relationships maintained by established software brands. Even as it faces these product hurdles, Anthropic remains in high demand among investors. The company is reportedly turning down investors who want to buy into the business at an $800 billion valuation, a figure that represents more than double its valuation from its most recent funding round at the beginning of the year.

Why it matters

The departure of a key executive from a board seat highlights the growing tension between AI labs and incumbent software companies, as investors weigh whether frontier models will disrupt or integrate with existing business tools.