Amazon invests US$2.75 billion more in OpenAI rival Anthropic to boost generative AI efforts
- The capital infusion brings Amazon’s total investment in Anthropic, formed in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI, to US$4 billion
- Anthropic, which offers a chatbot named Claude, has emphasised developing AI safely and responsibly
Amazon.com says it is investing an additional US$2.75 billion in Anthropic, completing a deal it made last year to back the artificial intelligence (AI) start-up and expand a partnership between the companies.
The capital infusion brings Amazon’s total investment in Anthropic, a well-regarded builder of AI tools able to generate text and analysis, to US$4 billion, following an earlier investment announced in September. As part of that deal, Amazon had the right to contribute the additional funds in the form of a convertible note, provided it did so before the end of March.
As part of the tie-up, Anthropic has also agreed to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres to power some of its operations, and to use Amazon’s custom-built computer chips. San Francisco -based Anthropic has also committed to using chips from Alphabet’s Google, another close partner.
Anthropic is tied up with multiple Big Tech companies, including Google, which joined a US$450 million round of financing last May led by Spark Capital. Google and AWS are both Anthropic’s cloud computing partners.
Anthropic was formed in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI, including Daniela Amodei and her brother Dario, who serves as its chief executive officer.