UK Antitrust Regulator Is Investigating Amazon Over It's Anthropic Investments

Amazon is being officially investigated by the UK’s antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), after it recently invested $4 billion into AI startup, Anthropic. For monopoly reasons, it is perceived Amazon seeks indirect-control of the startup. In light of the emergence of AI in recent years, most tech giants have been making large investments into AI startups, while at the same time developing their own inhouse AI products. This multi-play approach ensures the tech giants don’t miss out regardless of future outcomes.

However, Amazon has said it doesn’t have a controlling stake in Anthropic. An Anthropic spokesperson said: “We are an independent company. Amazon does not have a seat on Anthropic’s board, nor does it have any board observer rights. We intend to cooperate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investment and our commercial collaboration.

The CMA is similarly launching a probe against Google for its investment into Anthropic, and also in Microsoft, for it’s investment in OpenAI.