The British antitrust agency announced on Tuesday that it is looking into whether Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, a UK-based AI company, have lessened competition.
TakeAway Points:
- The collaboration between Google parent Alphabet and artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is being looked into, according to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority.
- If cooperation between the two firms results in a “relevant merger situation,” the CMA is investigating whether it “may be expected to result in a substantial decrease in competition” in the UK.
- According to a representative for Anthropic, the business will work with the CMA and “provide them with the whole picture concerning Google’s investment and our commercial relationship.”
Google parent Alphabet collaborates with Anthtopic
Britain’s competition regulator said on Tuesday it is investigating to see if Google parent Alphabet’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has resulted in reduced competition.
The Competition and Markets Authority said that it is looking into whether a partnership between the two firms has led to a “relevant merger situation,” and if that “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition” in the U.K.
The regulator has invited comments from interested parties before beginning a formal investigation.
An Anthropic spokesperson said that the company will cooperate with the CMA and “provide them with the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” the spokesperson added.
The Anthropic spokesperson added that, unlike OpenAI, which previously gave Microsoft an observer seat on its board, neither Google nor Amazon have a seat or any observation rights over Anthropic’s board. Microsoft recently dropped its seat as an observer on the board of the company.
Anthropic added that its models are available non-exclusively on Google’s Vertex AI platform, as well as Amazon’s Bedrock, alongside models from other AI labs. Google also pushed back on competition concerns over its deal with Anthropic.
A spokesperson for the company said that it’s “committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world” and added that Anthropic is “free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
Google to invest $2 billion in Anthropic
Google agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Anthropic back in October, in a move that involved a $500 million upfront cash injection and an additional $1.5 billion to be poured in over time. This was on top of prior investments Google had made in the company, which has reportedly given it around a 10% stake in the AI startup.
Anthropic is the developer of Claude, a rival chatbot to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. U.S. giants have been aggressively investing in companies they think can lead in artificial intelligence, amid a global frenzy around the technology.
Anthropic is one of those companies. Amazon, for example, pledged last year to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic.
However, regulators in the U.S. and U.K. have become increasingly concerned by the investments being made by technology giants in smaller firms.
In April, the CMA said it was opening an investigation into partnerships between Microsoft and French AI firm Mistral, into the relationship between Amazon and Anthropic, as well as into Microsoft’s hiring of former employees from Inflection AI.
Since then, the regulator has decided not to investigate Microsoft’s pact with Mistral. The Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. is also investigating these similar partnerships.
Britain’s CMA has stepped up its scrutiny of big U.S. tech firms in recent years, looking into whether the deals they make will reduce competition in the relevant market. One of the regulator’s most noteworthy battles was the initial blocking of Microsoft’s $69 billion takeover of gaming firm Activision Blizzard, though the CMA eventually approved the deal.
