When Rendering Goes to Zero: How Anthropic Repriced the Design Layer
A 38-source synthesis of the three days that broke design tools, and the architectural shift behind the move.
Three days. That is all the time that passed between the first signal and the finished move.
On April 14, Mike Krieger, Anthropic's Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Instagram, resigned from Figma's board effective immediately. The stated reason was the standard governance language: no disagreement, amicable, routine transition. Figma's stock dropped 6% that day. The Information had already reported the reason: Anthropic was building design tools that would compete directly with Figma's core product. The resignation was disclosed in an SEC filing the same day.
Two days later, Opus 4.7 shipped. One day after that, Claude Design went live.
Figma lost another 7.28% in a single session on launch day. From its IPO peak in August 2025 at $142.92, the stock was now sitting below $19 and touched an all-time low of $16.69 on April 24. A company worth $56 billion at its
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