Amazon invests $2.75b in Anthropic

Amazon has made a significant investment of $2.75 billion in the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. This latest investment brings Amazon's total stake in the San Francisco-based company to $4 billion[7][8]. The initial investment of $1.25 billion was made in September, and the recent infusion completes the commitment Amazon made at that time to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic[5].

Anthropic is known for its generative AI and the Claude 3 family of models, which demonstrate advanced intelligence, near-human levels of responsiveness, improved steerability and accuracy, and new vision capabilities[5]. These models are accessible on Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS)[5]. As part of the agreement between the two companies, Anthropic is using AWS as its primary cloud provider and will utilize AWS Tranium and Inferentia chips for its future AI models[5]. Additionally, Anthropic has made a long-term commitment to provide AWS customers with access to future generations of its foundation models on Amazon Bedrock[5].

The strategic collaboration is aimed at improving customer experiences and leveraging generative AI, which is considered to be one of the most transformational technologies of our time[5][7]. Amazon's investment in Anthropic is part of a broader trend of big tech companies investing in AI startups to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence[4]. This move by Amazon is its largest outside investment in its three-decade history and reflects the company's ambition to gain an edge in generative artificial intelligence[4].

Anthropic competes with other AI companies like OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and was founded by former OpenAI research executives and employees[4]. The company's product, Claude, directly competes with OpenAI's ChatGPT in both the enterprise and consumer markets[4]. Anthropic's most recent suite of AI models, Claude 3, is said to outperform competitors like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini Ultra in various industry benchmarks[4].

The investment also comes at a time when U.S. antitrust regulators are reviewing such investments amid growing public and business interest in AI technology[3]. Despite the scrutiny, Amazon maintains that its venture investing does not constitute round tripping, a practice that can be illegal if aimed at misleading investors[4].

Citations:
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-27/amazon-invests-additional-2-75-billion-in-ai-startup-anthropic
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/27/amazon-anthropic-investment-ai-big-tech/254d65d0-ec6b-11ee-8f2c-380a821c02db_story.html
[3] https://apnews.com/article/amazon-anthropic-investment-ai-big-tech-f5108beaa33455f331010489e03586d4
[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/27/amazon-spends-2point7b-on-startup-anthropic-in-largest-venture-investment.html
[5] https://www.pymnts.com/news/investment-tracker/2024/amazon-expands-investment-artificial-intelligence-firm-anthropic-4-billion-dollars/
[6] https://www.investors.com/news/technology/amazon-anthropic-investment-ai/
[7] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/27/technology/amazon-anthropic-ai.html
[8] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/amazon-invests-2-75-billion-in-ai-startup-anthropic-87bb869e