Amazon Invests Up to $4 Billion in AI Company Anthropic
Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has recently announced a strategic investment of up to $4 billion in Anthropic, an emerging AI company. This move by the e-commerce giant aims to tap into the potential of artificial intelligence across various applications within its business.
As part of the groundbreaking deal, Anthropic will utilize Amazon’s custom-designed chips to develop and deploy its AI software. Additionally, Amazon plans to integrate Anthropic’s cutting-edge technology into its extensive product portfolio.
According to insider sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon initially plans to invest $1.25 billion in Anthropic, with the potential to increase this amount to $4 billion based on certain conditions. Furthermore, Anthropic has committed to allocating a portion of this capital towards Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud infrastructure arm.
In premarket trading on Monday, shares of Amazon Inc. rose by 0.6%.
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, stands out by offering an AI assistant named Claude, which directly competes with ChatGPT.
Led by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, both former employees of OpenAI, 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 excitement and investments in AI, it still represents only a fraction of the revenue generated by cloud-computing businesses.
For example, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) 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.
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