UK Competition Regulator Clears $4bn Amazon Anthropic AI Deal

The UK competition regulator has cleared Amazon’s $4 billion (£3bn) investment into generative artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Anthropic, saying the deal does not meet its threshold for a more in-depth review.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began its probe last month amidst wider concern that a small number of tech companies were controlling the emerging generative AI field.

The regulator found Anthropic’s revenue and combined market share with Amazon in the UK were not large enough to require an in-depth inquiry under the UK’s merger rules.

“We welcome the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority decision acknowledging its lack of jurisdiction regarding this collaboration,” Amazon stated.

‘Helping competition’

“By investing in Anthropic, we’re helping to spur entry and competition in generative AI.”

Under the deal Anthropic is using Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud infrastructure and Amazon’s custom AI server chips.

The CMA recently cleared a Microsoft collaboration with France’s Mistral AI and its mass hiring of key staff from Inflection AI.

The regulator is continuing to investigate a partnership between Anthropic and Google, stemming from Google’s decision in February to invest $300m into Anthropic.

“Anthropic is an independent company and our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or freedom to partner with others,” Anthropic said.

Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives, including siblings Daniela and Dario Amodei, Anthropic in January 2024 released a limited test of a chatbot named Claude that offers features similar to ChatGPT.

The CMA said earlier this year it has “real concerns” with the way the market for AI Foundation Models (FMs) is controlled by a small number of firms.

‘Interconnected web’

The regulator said it had identified an “interconnected web of over 90 partnerships and strategic investments involving the same firms: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia (the leading supplier of AI accelerator chips)”.

In April the CMA announced it had expanded its investigation into the AI sector and its key players, inviting interested third parties to comment on the partnerships between Microsoft and Mistral AI, as well as Amazon and Anthropic.

Antitrust regulators around the world have become increasingly concerned by the deals struck between smaller AI start-ups and big tech giants.

Regulators in the United States, European Union and Britain in July signed a joint statement promising to work together to safeguard fair competition in the industry.