Amazon Invests Up to $4 Billion in AI Company Anthropic
Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has made a strategic investment of up to $4 billion in Anthropic, an emerging AI company. The move is aimed at capitalizing on the potential of artificial intelligence across various applications within Amazon’s business.
As part of the deal, Anthropic will utilize Amazon’s custom-designed chips to develop and deploy its AI software. Additionally, Amazon plans to integrate Anthropic’s advanced technology into its extensive product portfolio.
Insider sources cited by The Wall Street Journal reveal that Amazon initially invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic, with the possibility of increasing the investment to $4 billion based on certain conditions. Furthermore, Anthropic has committed to allocating a portion of this capital to Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud infrastructure arm.
Shares of Amazon Inc. saw a 0.6% increase in premarket trading on Monday.
The AI Gold Rush Continues
Earlier this year, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Google invested over $300 million in Anthropic.
Salesforce Inc. (NASDAQ:CRM) has also been actively involved in funding AI startups, including Anthropic and Cohere, a competitor of OpenAI.
Anthropic, founded in 2021, sets itself apart by offering an AI assistant named Claude, which directly competes with ChatGPT.
Led by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, former OpenAI employees, Anthropic emphasizes the safety and reliability of its technology.
Amazon’s decision to become Anthropic’s primary cloud provider highlights the growing significance of cloud infrastructure in the AI ecosystem.
Despite the enthusiasm and investments in AI, it still contributes only a fraction of the revenue generated by cloud-computing businesses.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), for example, projected that two percentage points of its anticipated 26% quarterly revenue growth in its Azure business would come from AI services.
Read now: After Italy Ban, OpenAI’s ChatGPT Now Faces Legal Storm In Poland Over Privacy Concerns
Photo via Shutterstock.