UK regulators add Amazon, Anthropic partnership to growing inquiry list

UK regulators launched a formal investigation into Amazon and Anthropic’s partnership Thursday, the latest in a series of probes focused on AI deals. The Competition and Markets Authority gave the notice after gathering “sufficient” evidence during a public call for comments announced in April.

The agency plans to assess whether the partnership resulted in a relevant merger situation under the country’s laws and, if so, determine its impact on market competition. The regulators are expected to decide whether to move forward with a Phase 2 investigation on Oct. 4.

Amazon is currently a minority owner of Anthropic, a deal cemented in March with a $4 billion investment. AWS is Anthropic’s primary cloud provider for certain workloads, and Anthropic’s Claude models are offered non-exclusively on Amazon Bedrock.

“We’re disappointed that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has not ended its probe yet,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email to CIO Dive Thursday. “Amazon’s collaboration with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns or meets the CMA’s own threshold for review.”

Anthropic said it continues to operate as an independent company.

“Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others,” a spokesperson for the startup said in an email Thursday. “We intend to cooperate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

As large technology providers added generative AI capabilities into products and platforms, most chose a multi-pronged approach that included heavily investing in and partnering with quickly rising startups. The approach has raised questions for regulators regarding market competition.

The Competition and Markets Authority previously outlined its concerns that vendors may have the ability to shape markets related to AI foundation models in their own interests.

“This could profoundly impact fair, open and effective competition in FM-related markets, ultimately harming businesses and consumers, for example through reduced choice, lower quality and higher prices,” the agency said in the April report.

Ongoing inquiries

The probe into Anthropic and Amazon’s partnership is the latest move from UK regulators, who have taken a sweeping aim at AI startup deals.

Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI caught the Competition and Market Authority’s attention after a brief — but intense — internal governance crisis at the startup. The turmoil resulted in a new board, with Microsoft as a non-voting observera seat that has since been relinquished, according to The Verge. The Competition and Markets Authority case assessing the partnership is still open.

Microsoft’s hiring of Inflection AI’s top executive and senior staff is also under review as UK regulators decide whether the talent grab impacts market competitiveness.

“We are confident that the hiring of talent promotes competition and should not be treated as a merger,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CIO Dive in July. “We will provide the UK Competition and Markets Authority with the information it needs to complete its inquiries expeditiously.”

Anthropic is now part of two separate merger inquiries in the UK as well.

The Competition and Markets Authority said last week it was seeking comments on Anthropic’s partnership with Google parent company Alphabet before deciding to move forward with a potential formal investigation. Anthropic said neither Google nor Amazon are board members.

The European Commission, UK Competition and Markets Authority, US Federal Trade Commission and US Department of Justice signed a joint statement underlining their commitment to fair dealings, interoperability and choice as key to supporting competition, protecting consumers and helping businesses innovate.