--- title: "Billion-level user competition: Besides programming, Excel is the true \"killer\" application scenario for AI" description: "Freda Duan, a partner at Silicon Valley investment firm Altimeter Capital, pointed out that Excel, with approximately 1.5 billion monthly active users and its position as the underlying packaging laye" type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/273705962.md" published_at: "2026-01-26T13:11:13.000Z" --- # Billion-level user competition: Besides programming, Excel is the true "killer" application scenario for AI > Freda Duan, a partner at Silicon Valley investment firm Altimeter Capital, pointed out that Excel, with approximately 1.5 billion monthly active users and its position as the underlying packaging layer of the trillion-dollar application software market (accounting for about 50%), makes it the next key battleground for AI. If AI-native Excel achieves programmability, its market will expand from office tools to application creation. Industry giants are targeting high-value sectors such as finance to compete for this billion-user scenario Altimeter Capital, a top technology investment fund in Silicon Valley, partner Freda Duan's latest insights point out that while programming has become the strongest AI application vertical to date, with the backing of a billion-level user scale, **Excel (spreadsheets) possesses the same explosive potential and is expected to become the next true "super vertical" of AI.** This trend has triggered substantial actions from industry giants. Public information shows that OpenAI and Anthropic are actively expanding into the spreadsheet and productivity workflow fields. Market analysis believes that **spreadsheets not only have a larger potential market size (TAM) than programming, but their characteristic as an "encapsulation layer" for application software gives them the potential to reshape the entire software industry.** Investors are closely monitoring the replication of this logic. For example, in the programming field, four companies have emerged with annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeding $1 billion, and at least seven companies have rapidly surpassed $100 million ARR. If Excel can replicate the "product-driven growth" model of the programming field, its revaluation in the SaaS and application software market will be disruptive. The core of this investment logic is that **spreadsheets are not only a terminal market but also a strategic entry point that can penetrate into finance, CRM, and internal tool development, showing an astonishing similarity in user base and commercialization paths to the programming field.** ## **Insights from the Programming Field: Product-Driven Efficient Expansion** The reason programming has become the strongest AI application vertical currently is due to its three scarce attributes: a massive potential market of about $2 trillion (according to ChatGPT data), a natural advantage in entering adjacent use cases, and a product-driven go-to-market strategy (GTM) that does not require traditional sales and marketing intervention. Structurally, the programming market is vastly different from fields like healthcare, real estate, or finance, which require complex enterprise procurement processes. Developers can quickly identify quality tools and have direct influence over tool approval or expense reimbursement. As long as the tools can improve efficiency, companies are usually not sensitive to the additional costs incurred by a single developer. This "bottom-up" dissemination model allows strong products to spread rapidly at very low sales costs. ## **Beyond Programming: The Billion-Level User Spreadsheet Market** Excel exhibits vertical characteristics that are remarkably similar to programming, and its scale is even larger. According to data released by Google Workspace for 2025, its paid customers have exceeded 11 million, with a user base of over 3 billion. A report from Kingsoft (WPS Office) in December 2024 shows that the global monthly active devices reached 632 million, while Microsoft has historically disclosed about 1.2 billion Office users. Comprehensive estimates suggest that **the global monthly active user base for spreadsheets is approximately 1.5 to 1.6 billion.** This vast user base signifies a tremendous potential market. Within the software industry, which has a scale of about $1 trillion, application software accounts for about 50%, and a significant portion of this—including CRM, Airtable, Smartsheet, as well as financial, operational, and analytical tools—can essentially be viewed as a massive "Excel encapsulation layer." If native AI enables Excel to possess programmability, its opportunities will extend beyond single products like Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, and the competitive boundaries will expand to application creation itself. ## **Financial Industry: A High-Value Natural Entry Point** In terms of commercialization pathways, the financial industry is seen as the logical starting point in this field, which is also a key focus for Anthropic and OpenAI. The financial industry has extremely high per capita profits and a strong willingness to pay for productivity tools, and analysts typically have budgetary discretion similar to developers, with clear return on investment (ROI) allowing products to sell themselves. In terms of user density, there are over 6.7 million professionals in the U.S. financial services and insurance industry, while globally, there are about 150 million people engaged in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), accounting, auditing, and cash management across various financial functions. This means that among the 1.55 billion spreadsheet users, approximately 10% belong to this high-value, easily monetizable segment, providing an excellent initial entry point for AI-driven Excel tools. As demonstrated in the programming field, **a self-service, workflow-native tool with a large surface area will scale faster than almost any other software category.** ### Related Stocks - [DTCR.US - Global X Data Center & Dgtl Infrs ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DTCR.US.md) - [MSFL.US - GraniteShares 2x Long MSFT Daily ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFL.US.md) - [IXN.US - ISHRS S&P Glb It](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/IXN.US.md) - [MSFX.US - T-Rex 2X Long Microsoft Daily Target ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFX.US.md) - [XSW.US - SPDR S&P Software](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/XSW.US.md) - [MSFT.US - Microsoft](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFT.US.md) - [MSFU.US - Direxion Daily MSFT Bull 2X Shares](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFU.US.md) - [DAT.US - Proshares Big Data Refiners ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DAT.US.md) - [CLOU.US - Global X Cloud Computing ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/CLOU.US.md) - [MSFO.US - YieldMax MSFT Option Income Strategy ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MSFO.US.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | 索羅斯逆市加碼微軟及 Nvidia 等科企 新買入黃金股 清倉 4 隻股份 | 索羅斯基金管理公司在 2022 年第四季度加大對微軟、英偉達和蘋果等大型科技股的投資，同時增持黃金股以對衝風險。基金還增持了 Atlassian、Salesforce 和 Uber 等軟體公司股票，但大幅減持了 Snowflake 和 Ci | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275990619.md) | | Quack AI, ZetaChain - ZetaChain & Quack AI -2026年2月14日 | Quack AI 正在與 ZetaChain 合作，將其 Q402 執行層與 ZetaChain 的跨鏈基礎設施進行整合。此次合作旨在促進代理原生執行，同時在各網絡之間保持身份和政策的一致性。該整合可能會增強交易流動性並增加協議的使用，可能 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275987780.md) | | 加劇 AI 恐慌！微軟高管：大多數白領工作將在 “未來 12-18 個月內” 完全自動化 | 微軟 AI 負責人發出 “最激進預警”：律師、會計等大多數白領工作或在 18 個月內被 AI 取代，目前市場對於衝擊節奏仍有分歧。華爾街日報稱，Mercor 僱傭大量白領為大模型提供訓練支持，白領正親手訓練這一 “替代者”。Anthropi | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275831004.md) | | 美聯儲是否因為人工智能可能引發的經濟衰退即將到來而進行干預？ | 這篇文章討論了美聯儲在強勁經濟背景下意外降息和印鈔的舉措，質疑這些措施是否預示着即將到來的人工智能引發的經濟衰退。微軟人工智能部門首席執行官穆斯塔法·蘇萊曼預測，人工智能將在 12 到 18 個月內自動化許多專業任務，可能對經濟產生負面影響 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275933959.md) | | Symitri 在 Safari 和 Firefox 瀏覽器中為 TRUBAR 帶來了 5.6 倍的轉化率提升 | Symitri，由 Bill Wheaton 領導，發佈了一項案例研究，展示其 PRISM AI 技術，該技術使 TRUBAR 實現了 5.6 倍的轉化率提升和 70% 的可觸達受眾增長，適用於 Safari 和 Firefox。該平台利用 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275763489.md) | --- > **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.