UK investigates Amazon partnership with AI firm Anthropic

Text size

The UK’s competition watchdog said on Friday it had opened an investigation into a partnership between US e-commerce giant Amazon and Anthropic, a US artificial intelligence company.

The decision comes after the Competition and Markets Authority announced in April that it was investigating possible links between the artificial intelligence companies and their US technology partners Amazon and Microsoft.

The CMA’s actions follow similar investigations by regulators in the United States and the European Union.

The British regulator said in a statement on Friday that it was considering whether the Amazon-Anthropic partnership “has caused, or is likely to cause, a significant lessening of competition in any market or markets for goods or services in the United Kingdom.”

This follows Amazon’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic, a company developing an AI-based chatbot competitor to ChatGPT.

Amazon criticized the decision, writing in a separate statement that its “partnership with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns and does not meet the CMA’s thresholds for scrutiny.”

He added: “By investing in Anthropic, Amazon, along with other companies, is helping Anthropic expand choice and competition in this important technology.”

Anthropic stressed that it is an “independent company,” while promising to “work with the CMA and provide them with comprehensive information about Amazon’s investment and our commercial relationship.”

bcp/rl