Amazon’s AI Partnership with Anthropic

(Reuters) – Britain’s competition regulator announced on Friday that Amazon’s artificial intelligence partnership with startup Anthropic will not be investigated further as it does not raise competition concerns.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that the partnership, which includes a $4 billion investment by Amazon in Anthropic, does not qualify for scrutiny under Britain’s merger regulations.

“We welcome the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision acknowledging its lack of jurisdiction regarding this collaboration,” said an Amazon spokesperson in response to the decision.

The CMA has also approved a similar partnership between Microsoft and Inflection AI.

However, Alphabet’s partnership with Anthropic is still being examined.

“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,” an Anthropic representative told Reuters on Friday.

Co-founded by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic has secured billions in investments from various tech giants.

Antitrust regulators globally are increasingly concerned about the numerous deals between smaller startups and large tech companies.