If Microsoft and Uber can't afford AI coding, what chance do the rest of us have?

Two stories landed in the same news cycle. Microsoft cancelled most internal Claude Code licenses. Windows, Surface, Teams, Outlook, all migrating to GitHub Copilot CLI by June 30. Reporting is consistent on the why: usage exploded, the bills got indefensible, and the company that owns Azure and is one of Anthropic's biggest partners decided it was cheaper to migrate thousands of engineers than to keep paying the meter. Uber's CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said the company is "back to the drawing board" on AI coding. They burned through their planned 2026 AI budget within months.