Amazon has announced additional investment in generative AI startup Anthropic with a new $2.75 billion outlay. This latest contribution increases Amazon’s total investment in the company to $4 billion, following a previous investment disclosed last September. The agreement included an option for Amazon to provide this extra funding through a convertible note before the end of March.
As a part of their collaboration, Anthropic will utilize Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers for some of its operations and integrate Amazon’s custom-designed computer chips into its infrastructure. Moreover, Anthropic maintains a partnership with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, also committing to use Google’s chips, marking a strategic alliance with two of the tech industry’s giants.
Anthropic, established in San Francisco in 2021 by former OpenAI personnel including Daniela Amodei and her brother Dario, who is the CEO, has quickly emerged as a strong competitor to OpenAI. The startup has attracted billions in funding and established a diverse business clientele, including DuckDuckGo and Lonely Planet, thanks to its advanced AI chatbot named Claude.
The rising interest in chatbots, capable of simulating human-like conversations, underscores a broader trend in Silicon Valley towards investing in generative AI technologies. Another tech industry titan, Microsoft, has made a large $13 billion investment in industry first-mover OpenAI. Similarly, Meta is known to be pouring billions of dollars in developing gen-AI capabilities in-house.
