The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided not to conduct an in-depth investigation into Amazon's (AMZN, Financial) collaboration with AI startup Anthropic, as the partnership does not present significant competitive issues. Anthropic's revenue and market share in the UK do not meet the regulatory thresholds for an investigation.
The CMA announced on Friday that Amazon's $4 billion investment in Anthropic would not face further scrutiny. The agency concluded that Anthropic's UK revenue does not exceed £70 million, and their combined market share in the UK is below 25%, thus not meeting the criteria for a merger review under UK regulations.
Amazon welcomed the CMA's decision and emphasized that the collaboration poses no competition concerns. Although the CMA started a preliminary investigation in August, it ultimately decided to take no further action. The CMA continues to investigate Google's partnership with Anthropic.
Anthropic reiterated its position as an independent company, highlighting that strategic and investment relationships with companies like Amazon do not impact its governance or freedom to collaborate with other firms.
Founded by former OpenAI executives Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei, Anthropic has received investments from several tech giants. Recently, Amazon announced an additional $2.75 billion investment in March, bringing its total investment to $4 billion, marking Amazon's largest external investment since its $1.3 billion stake in electric vehicle maker Rivian.
Anthropic is currently negotiating new funding, aiming for a $40 billion valuation. The company has also launched a new version of its generative AI chatbot, Claude, targeting large enterprises.
Global antitrust regulators are increasingly attentive to deals between small industry startups and large tech companies. Previously, the CMA deemed a similar transaction between Microsoft and French AI startup Mistral AI as not meeting the investigation criteria.
In March, Microsoft agreed to pay $650 million to AI startup Inflection AI for software licensing. Microsoft also hired Inflection AI's co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karen Simonyan, along with most of the company's staff. Industry insiders suggested Microsoft's actions were akin to a low-cost, indirect acquisition of Inflection AI. However, the CMA found Inflection AI's market share in the UK chatbot and AI tool market too small to warrant an investigation.
