Amazon is reportedly in talks to expand its investment in AI startup Anthropic, potentially injecting additional billions into the company as part of its aggressive push into the AI sector.
According to The Information, the deal with the Claude chatbot maker hinges on a key condition: Anthropic must adopt Amazon-developed chips for training its AI models, a shift from its current reliance on Nvidia-designed hardware.
This potential investment builds on Amazon’s existing $4 billion stake in Anthropic, which it completed in March 2024. As part of the previous deal, Anthropic agreed to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider and provide early access to its AI models for AWS customers.
The stakes for Anthropic
Amazon has invested heavily in developing its AI chip capabilities to compete with Nvidia, the dominant player in the AI space. The tech giant unveiled its next-generation Graviton4 and Trainium2 chip families at its 2023 AWS re:invent conference, promoting them as faster and more cost-effective options for AI workloads.
Anthropic currently uses Nvidia chips for AI training, but Amazon’s condition could compel the startup to transition to its in-house silicon, including the AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips. It would also help raise awareness of Amazon's offering.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic has established itself as a competitor to OpenAI with its Claude AI model. The startup recently debuted an AI agent designed to perform complex, autonomous tasks on computers. With scaling AI operations requiring significant capital, Amazon’s offer could provide critical support for Anthropic’s growth, despite potential friction over hardware requirements.
To date, Anthropic has raised approximately $9.7 billion, with other notable backers including Google parent Alphabet, which invested $500 million upfront and pledged an additional $1.5 billion. Anthropic’s current valuation reportedly hovers around $40 billion, reflecting growing interest in generative AI technologies.
Regulatory scrutiny looms
Amazon’s deepening involvement with Anthropic could attract regulatory scrutiny, particularly in the U.K., where the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has expressed concerns over the concentration of power among a few key AI players. In August 2024, the CMA launched an investigation into Amazon’s funding of Anthropic, although it ultimately cleared the $4 billion investment in September, stating it did not meet the threshold for an in-depth merger review.
If this new deal materializes, it may reignite regulatory concerns, especially as Amazon strengthens its foothold in the AI ecosystem, a space already dominated by a handful of tech giants, including Microsoft and Google.
This investment supports Amazon’s broader strategy to secure a leadership role in AI by integrating its cloud services and proprietary chips into the workflows of major AI startups. AWS has already positioned itself as a key player in the cloud AI market, with services like Amazon Bedrock facilitating the development of generative AI applications.
For Amazon, success in this endeavor would not only boost its AI credentials but also enhance the appeal of AWS to enterprise customers seeking advanced AI capabilities. As competition in the AI sector intensifies, this move underscores Amazon’s determination to shape the future of generative AI.
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