Amazon announced Wednesday that it has added $2.75 billion to its investment in Anthropic, a start-up that competes with the likes of OpenAI and Google in the race to build cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems.
The investment comes six months after Amazon invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic, making the San Francisco startup Amazon’s most important AI partner. Amazon said at the time that it had an option to increase its total investment to $4 billion. He had until the end of March to do so, according to financial filings.
However, the additional investment shows the huge resources tech companies are pouring into AI and is indicative of how much financial backing Anthropic needs to keep up with its peers.
“We believe our strategic partnership with Anthropic will further enhance our customers’ experiences, and we look forward to what’s next,” Amazon executive Swami Sivasubramanian said in a blog post announcing the investment.
While Anthropic is getting closer to Amazon, it has shed most of the holdings from a controversial investor. Last week, a federal judge approved bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX to sell its stake in Anthropic. In 2021, FTX invested $500 million in the AI ​​startup, accounting for a roughly 8 percent stake.
The value of this investment has skyrocketed. Anthropic’s valuation tripled to $15 billion in just one year, the New York Times reported in February.
Anthropic was started in 2021 by a team of researchers from OpenAI, the company that created the ChatGPT chatbot. At the time, many of these researchers were concerned that OpenAI was closing in on Microsoft in a $13 billion partnership.
Anthropic has been steadily raising capital because developing the foundational systems for productive artificial intelligence requires deep pockets, both to hire staff and secure computing power.
But Amazon’s investment in Anthropic isn’t just a simple equity stake. Like Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, it includes gaining access to artificial intelligence systems and commitments to provide computing power. However, it does not respond to high-value acquisitions that could trigger an antitrust review. The Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation into whether these kinds of big AI deals hinder competition.
In a key part of the partnership, Anthropic agreed to build its AI using specialized computer chips designed by Amazon. Amazon has said it hopes Anthropic will help its efforts to meet the cutting-edge demands of artificial intelligence as well as collaborate on specialized chip designs.
Amazon also has an early opportunity to make Anthropic’s AI models available to customers of its cloud computing service, and this month announced that it will provide access to Anthropic’s most powerful models, known as Claude 3.
FTX’s bankruptcy estate has agreed to sell about two-thirds of its shares in the startup for $884 million. Most of the stake went to ATIC Third International Investment Co., a company linked to a sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates.
Other buyers included the quantitative trading firm Jane Street and the Ford Foundation, a philanthropic group. Darren Walker, the foundation’s president, said in an interview that he saw Anthropic as a major competitor to OpenAI.
“The fact that Anthropic has emerged and will be a strong competitor is good for the markets and it’s good for the public and the public interest,” Mr Walker said.
David Yaffe-Bellany contributed to the report.
