Amazon, in its largest venture investment to date, has completed a $4 billion deal with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. The move solidifies Amazon's commitment to advancing generative AI and staying competitive in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Amazon has finalized its $4 billion investment in Anthropic, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup known for its chatbot Claude, which competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT. The tech giant initially invested $1.25 billion in September 2023 and committed to investing up to $4 billion. On Wednesday, Amazon announced the completion of the deal with an additional $2.75 billion investment, securing a minority ownership position in Anthropic.
Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI researchers, has quickly emerged as a leading research lab in the generative AI space. The startup recently introduced its state-of-the-art Claude 3 family of models, which outperformed OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini Ultra on various industry benchmark tests. As part of the deal, Anthropic will use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider for mission-critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development. The startup will also utilize AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train, and deploy its future models.
Global organizations across various industries, such as ADP, Delta Air Lines, Pfizer, and Siemens, are already using Anthropic's Claude AI on Amazon Bedrock, AWS's fully managed service for building generative AI applications.
Swami Sivasubramanian, vice president of Data and AI at AWS, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, "Generative AI is poised to be the most transformational technology of our time, and we believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further improve our customers' experiences, and look forward to what's next".
The investment is seen as a counter to Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI and Google's investment in Anthropic. It is part of a broader trend of cloud providers investing heavily in AI startups to stay ahead in the AI race. Microsoft has reportedly invested up to $13 billion in OpenAI, while Google has agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Anthropic.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and EU regulatory bodies are looking closely at these partnerships, including Microsoft's OpenAI deal and Google and Amazon's Anthropic investments, to ensure they do not constitute illegal round-tripping aimed at misleading investors. However, Amazon maintains that its venture investing does not fall under this category.
Amazon's $4 billion investment in Anthropic marks a significant milestone in the company's AI strategy and underscores the growing importance of generative AI in shaping the future of technology and business.