The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has confirmed that it’s carrying out a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s ties with Anthropic, after Amazon recently completed a $4 billion investment into the AI startup.
The news comes a week after the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) revealed it was launching an invitation to comment into Google’s own ties with Anthropic, after the internet first invested a reported $300 million last year followed by a further $2 billion.
Founded in 2021, San Francisco-based Anthropic, which has established itself as a public benefit corporation (PBC) to set itself apart from its rivals, develops large language models (LLMs) and an associated chatbot called Claude, which is similar to something like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard. The company has raised a chunky $10 billion in its three year history.
The AI goldrush has spurred Big Tech to pursue a multi-pronged approach to ensure they don’t miss out on the action, with growing concerns that they are adopting a new ‘quasi-merger‘ approach to M&A where they seek control over younger innovators through strategic investments or hiring startup founders and technical talent — anything to avoid the regulatory scrutiny that would come with a full-fledged acquisition.
This is a developing story, refresh for updates.
