Anthropic Expands Labs Division, Mike Krieger Transition
Narrative
Labs team expanded to incubate experimental products at frontier of Claude capabilities. Mike Krieger (Instagram co-founder, former CPO) joins Labs alongside Ben Mann. Ami Vora takes over Product organization. Claude Code described as "billion-dollar product in six months." MCP at 100M monthly downloads.
Reality
Announced January 13, 2026. Labs credited with producing Claude Code, MCP, Skills, Claude in Chrome, and Cowork. Krieger brings consumer product expertise from Instagram. Structural shift toward rapid experimentation with production scaling handled by separate Product org.
Implication
Signals Anthropic prioritizing rapid product experimentation alongside enterprise scaling. Instagram co-founder leading experimental AI products. Claude Code revenue milestone validates developer-first strategy. MCP adoption (100M downloads) positions Anthropic as infrastructure standard-setter.