Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of AI startup Anthropic.
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London – E-commerce Giant AmazonFacebook's multi-billion dollar investment in US artificial intelligence company Anthropic is currently under formal investigation by the UK's competition regulator.
The Competition and Markets Authority said on Thursday it had launched a “phase one” investigation into Amazon's investment and partnership with Anthropic to assess whether the deal has created a relevant merger event that could harm competition in the UK.
The Competition and Markets Authority said in a notice on its website that after an initial examination of the Amazon-Anthropic partnership, it now had “sufficient information” in relation to the partnership to launch a formal investigation.
The Competition and Markets Authority now has up to 40 working days to decide whether the deal could harm competition and should therefore be examined further in a “second phase” of its in-depth investigation.
Amazon closed a $4 billion investment in Anthropic in March. The deal consisted of an initial $1.25 billion equity stake in September, followed by a $2.75 billion transaction that closed earlier this year.
As part of the deal, Amazon will bring Anthropic’s powerful large language models to the Bedrock platform to build generative AI applications. Anthropic’s models will also be trained and deployed on Amazon’s custom AI chips, built by its cloud computing division, Amazon Web Services.
In a statement to CNBC, an Amazon spokesperson said the company was “disappointed” that the CMA was continuing its preliminary investigation into the first phase of the merger, adding that its collaboration with Anthropic “does not raise any competition concerns and does not meet the CMA’s threshold for review.”
“By investing in Anthropic, Amazon, along with other companies, is helping Anthropic expand choice and competition in this important technology,” a company spokesperson said via email. “Amazon does not have a board seat or decision-making authority over Anthropic, and Anthropic is free to work with any other provider (and already has multiple partners).”
The Amazon spokesperson added that the company will continue to make Anthropic models available to customers via Bedrock.
“We are an independent company,” an Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC. “Our strategic partnerships and relationships with investors do not diminish our independence in corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others.”
“Amazon does not hold a seat on Anthropic’s board, nor does it have any observer rights on the board. We welcome the opportunity to engage with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investments and our commercial collaboration,” the Anthropic spokesperson added.
