The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a formal investigation into Google's (GOOGL, Financial) collaboration with the AI company Anthropic, reflecting regulatory scrutiny on major tech companies investing in AI startups.
Google committed to a $2 billion investment in Anthropic, alongside a significant cloud services agreement. The CMA's investigation aims to ensure such investments don't distort market competition and concentrate power among a few large corporations. Microsoft's (MSFT) investment in OpenAI and Amazon's (AMZN) $4 billion investment in Anthropic are also under review by the CMA.
Globally, the CMA has been proactive in ensuring that tech giants' investments in the AI sector don't skew the market landscape. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the European Union are conducting similar probes into various tech collaborations.
Founded in 2021 by ex-OpenAI employees, Anthropic positions itself as a developer of safer and more responsible AI models. The startup launched its latest model, Claude3.5 Sonnet, in June, claiming superior performance in coding and text-based reasoning over its rivals.
Google has assured that Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers without exclusive technology rights. An Anthropic spokesperson emphasized the company's intention to cooperate with the CMA and maintained that strategic partnerships or investor relations would not compromise governance independence or collaboration freedom.
The CMA has set a deadline to decide whether to escalate this investigation, marking its ongoing efforts to monitor the AI investment-related activities of major tech firms to safeguard market competition and innovation.
