Google’s Partnership With Anthropic Faces UK Competition Scrutiny

Britain’s competition watchdog has announced that it is opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Last year, Google reportedly agreed to a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude. I Photo: Anthropic X

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it has “sufficient information” to begin an initial probe after soliciting input earlier this year on whether the deal might stifle competition.

The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation. “Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said.

“Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”

San Francisco-based Anthropic, founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI, focuses on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models.

Last year, Google reportedly agreed to a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude. Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”