The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a formal antitrust investigation into Amazon’s $4 billion investment in the AI startup Anthropic. This decision follows a recent CMA inquiry into Google’s substantial investments in the same company, which total $2.3 billion.
Founded in 2021 in San Francisco, Anthropic is known for its development of large language models and its chatbot, Claude. The startup has attracted significant investment, raising $10 billion to date.
This investigation is part of a broader scrutiny of Big Tech’s strategies to gain influence over emerging tech companies through substantial investments rather than outright acquisitions. The CMA is also preparing to probe Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI and has previously reviewed Microsoft’s deal with Mistral AI and the acquire of Inflection AI’s team.
Anthropic has emphasized that Amazon does not hold any board seats or observer rights and insists that the investment does not affect its operational independence. The CMA has until early October to determine whether the deal will proceed or require a more in-depth review.
Philips Babatunde