UK Regulator To Examine $4 Billion Amazon Investment In AI Startup Anthropic (theguardian.com) 2
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Amazon's $4 billion investment into US artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is to be examined in the latest investigation into technology tie-ups by the UK's competition watchdog. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Thursday that it was launching a preliminary investigation into the deal, before deciding whether to refer it for an in-depth review. The deal, announced in March, included a $4 billion investment in Anthropic from Amazon, and a commitment from Anthropic to use Amazon Web Services "as its primary cloud provider for mission critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development." The regulator said it was "considering whether it is or may be the case that Amazon's partnership with Anthropic has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation." "We are an independent company. Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others," said an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement. "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."
What did they say about Microsoft and OpenAI? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Will be interesting to compare and contrast.
I am surprised this is news coming from a UK regulator and not from either the US or EU. The EU has now established somewhat of a robust anti-trust reputation, the US less so in our recent past. Hell, the US hasn't written many new anti-trust laws since The Sherman Act. [youtu.be] [That link is to a very informative and entertaining interview of Lina Kahn, scroll back to watch all of it.]
However Lina Kahn is taking names and kicking ass [youtube.com]. So much so, two billionaires, Reed Hoffman of LinkedIn [cnn.com] and media mogul Barry Dill [foxbusiness.com]