Amazon’s artificial intelligence cooperation with startup Anthropic will not be referred for a more thorough investigation, according to a statement made by Britain’s antitrust authority on Friday, as it is outside of its purview.
akeAway Points:
- Amazon’s AI collaboration with startup Anthropic will not be forwarded for a more thorough investigation, according to the UK’s competition commission, which stated on Friday that the matter was outside of its purview.
- According to the Competition and Markets Authority, the partnership—which involves an investment of $4 billion by Amazon in Anthropic—did not meet the requirements for a merger probe in the United Kingdom.
- Amazon has surpassed its target of securing pledges to spend $1.8 billion on advertising on its video-streaming services for the upcoming year.
Amazon’s AI collaboration with Anthropic is approved by the UK
The Competition and Markets Authority said the partnership, which includes a $4 billion investment by Amazon in Anthropic, did not qualify for investigation under Britain’s merger regulations.
“We welcome the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decision acknowledging its lack of jurisdiction regarding this collaboration,” an Amazon spokesperson said in response to the regulator’s decision.
The regulator has also cleared a similar collaboration between Microsoft and Inflection AI.
However, Alphabet’s partnership with Anthropic is still under scrutiny.
“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 spokesperson said on Friday.
Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, has received billions of dollars in investments from several tech giants.
Antitrust regulators around the world have increasingly raised concerns over multiple deals struck between smaller industry startups and big tech companies.
Amazon adds to the $1.8 billion in ad spending for video-streaming services
Amazon has exceeded its goal of attracting $1.8 billion in ad-spending commitments on its video-streaming services for next year, The Information reported on Thursday, citing a person with direct knowledge of the company’s ad sales efforts.
Advertisers negotiate large TV and streaming ad commitments for the coming 12 months in the upfront ad market, which recently concluded for 2024.
The spending commitments include ads on Prime Video and Amazon’s live sports telecasts, such as the National Football League’s Thursday Night Football games, the report said.
The e-commerce giant is betting it can keep its ad revenue growth going by investing in streaming TV and capturing a meaningful share of ad budgets, especially as they increasingly shift towards streaming-video services.
The company began placing ads on its Prime Video offering for the first time earlier this year.
In July, Amazon, along with Walt Disney’s ESPN and Comcast-owned NBCUniversal, clinched the rights to carry National Basketball Association games in an 11-year deal valued at $77 billion.
The NBA adds to Prime Video’s growing roster of live sports offerings, which include NFL and NASCAR in 2025.
Amazon missed estimates for advertising sales, a closely watched metric, in the second quarter as it ramps up its rivalry with Meta Platform and Alphabet’s Google. Sales of $12.8 billion were below average estimates of $13 billion, according to LSEG data.
