IBM and Anthropic are joining forces to bring Claude, Anthropic’s large language model, into IBM’s enterprise software. The deal boosts IBM’s artificial intelligence ambitions and strengthens Anthropic’s position in the market.
For IBM, the partnership positions the company squarely in the big tech enterprise AI race, competing directly with Microsoft’s Copilot, Google Gemini and Amazon Q.
These competitors dominate enterprise cloud and AI, making IBM’s move with Anthropic a bold play to reclaim influence in this lucrative sector.
According to the IBM Newsroom, the goal is to accelerate enterprise-ready AI by integrating Claude into IBM’s software portfolio. This approach embeds “security, governance, and cost controls” throughout the software development process.
“IBM has been the backbone of enterprise technology for decades because we understand what it takes to deploy at scale in mission-critical environments,” SVP of Software Dinesh Nirmal at IBM, said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the collaboration starts with integrating Claude into IBM’s integrated developer environment, IDE. The tool helps engineers automate tasks like modernizing and refactoring code, with plans to expand Claude across more enterprise tools soon.
In early testing, over 6,000 IBM employees used the IDE and reported productivity gains of up to 45% according to IBM Newsroom. The company says these results translate to lower costs while maintaining code quality and security.
“Enterprises are looking for AI they can actually trust with their code, data and operations,” Mike Krieger, Anthropic’s chief product officer, said. “This partnership with IBM lets us bring that same dedication to even more enterprise teams.”
Claude’s constitutional AI design emphasizes safety and transparency, making Anthropic a strong contender in the enterprise market where reliability is critical. Beyond performance, the deal signals a broader shift in the AI race. As tech giants chase consumer attention, many are pivoting toward “enterprise AI,” tools built for compliance, security and practical business use.
Kareem Yusuf, IBM’s senior vice president of ecosystem, strategic partners and initiatives, said the company began the collaboration after testing Anthropic’s models internally.
“We are really about AI for business,” Yusuf told The Wall Street Journal.
For Anthropic, the partnership is part of a deliberate strategy to strengthen its enterprise presence and compete with other AI startups striving for corporate adoption. Enterprise AI is emerging as a defining trend in the broader AI boom.
Unlike consumer-facing tools, it focuses on security, compliance and integration into complex business systems, making it increasingly attractive to both big tech and startups.
Bloomberg News reported that IBM shares rose 4% in premarket trading following the announcement, reflecting investor optimism about AI partnerships that combine established infrastructure with advanced models.
IBM also plans to contribute enterprise-grade assets to the Model Context Protocol community, including open-source tools and reference architectures. These contributions aim to set standards for secure, reliable enterprise AI adoption.
With Anthropic’s advanced models and IBM’s enterprise experience, the partnership shows how AI’s next frontier is the corporate world.
The race for AI dominance is shifting not just in app stores, but also in boardrooms and data centers.
