Amazon’s $4B Deal With Anthropic Is the Latest A.I. Tie-Up to Face Antitrust Scrutiny

Multibillion-dollar "partnerships" between Big Tech and A.I. startups are increasingly coming under regulatory scrutiny.

Anthropic Co-Founder & CEO Dario Amodei" width="970" height="647" data-caption='A.I. startup Anthropic is led by CEO Dario Amodei. <span class="media-credit">Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch</span>'>

As the A.I. race heats up, antitrust regulators around the world are increasingly concerned that the lucrative deals struck between Big Tech companies and generative A.I. startups in recent years could harm competition. The latest in the spotlight is Amazon (AMZN)’s $4 billion investment into Anthropic, a leading A.I. startup. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said today (Aug. 8) it will formally probe the partnership to ascertain whether the tie-up constitutes a de facto merger. The CMA claims it has “sufficient information” to launch a “Phase 1” investigation into whether the Amazon-Anthropic partnership has created a merger situation. It will have until Oct. 4 to decide whether it believes the probe should continue as a more thorough “Phase 2” investigation.

In a statement, Amazon said it was “disappointed” by the CMA’s decision and maintained that its “collaboration with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns.” The e-commerce giant argued that startups like Anthropic need capital to fund the development of A.I. models. “By investing in Anthropic, Amazon, along with other companies, is helping Anthropic expand choice and competition in this important technology,” it said.

Anthropic, meanwhile, emphasized that Amazon holds no board seats or board observer rights at the A.I. company—a common arrangement in a traditional corporate merger. “Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others,” said Anthropic in a statement, adding that it plans to cooperate with the CMA.

Amazon first invested $1.25 billion into Anthropic last September, followed by another $2.75 billion investment this March. In addition to giving Amazon minority ownership in the A.I. company, Anthropic, under the deal, uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider and will train and deploy future models with AWS A.I. chips.

Investigating Big Tech’s A.I. investments

The CMA’s Amazon-Anthropic probe follows a nearly identical investigation launched last month into Anthropic’s connection to Google (GOOGL), which has invested $2 billion into the startup. The competition watchdog in July also initiated an inquiry into Microsoft (MSFT)’s ties to the A.I. startup Inflection A.I., specifically examining the tech giant’s hiring of Inflection A.I. employees like co-founder Mustafa Suleyman.

Microsoft is additionally involved in what is perhaps the most well-known deal across Big Tech and A.I., having invested a staggering $13 billion into OpenAI. The CMA is currently looking into Microsoft and OpenAI’s connections but has yet to formally announce a “Phase 1” investigation into the tie-up. In light of heightened regulatory scrutiny regarding its connection to OpenAI, Microsoft in July withdrew from its non-voting board seat at the A.I. company. Microsoft and OpenAI’s recent partner, Apple (AAPL), who was set to take on a similar board role, will instead have regular meetings with the startup to keep informed.

Such competition regulation isn’t just taking place in Europe. At the beginning of this year, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it would also be scrutinizing the impacts of Big Tech’s investments in A.I. companies, ordering Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI and Google to provide information about their various partnerships.