Google Cloud has invested US$300mln in AI company Anthropic following the popularisation of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, according to media reports.
The deal will see Google acquire around 10% of Anthropic, with the two companies also swapping technology such as Tensor processing.
Tensor processing is a high-level machine learning model that incorporates AI services- vital in the running of programs like ChatGPT.
“We're partnering with Google Cloud to support the next phase of Anthropic, where we're going to deploy our AI systems to a larger set of people,” said Dario Amodei, Anthropic chief executive, in an update on its website.
The investment follows the supercharged rise of ChatGPT, an online AI language model that gained one million users in its first week and now has more than 100mln.
That growth led to Microsoft reportedly investing a further US$10bln in the chatbots creator.
Anthropic is developing its own AI assistant called Claude, although not yet released, the creation is a direct rival to ChatGPT.
A group of former OpenAI employees unhappy about the route the company was heading formed Anthropic.
The workers believed investment from Microsoft, which originally invested US$1bn in 2019, would push OpenAI down a path of commercialisation and lose focus on the company’s original goals.
Google’s relationship with Anthropic is only as a tech supplier as of now, people close to the deal believe.
Anthropic received US$500mln from Alameda Research - the company at the centre of the FTX scandal - and was flagged as an asset that could help Alameda’s creditors recover their money.
Alphabet-owned Google’s cloud division has also invested in AI start-ups Cohere and C3.
X Development, a semi-secret research facility, is also noted for inventing Google Street View, Google Glass and Google Translate - it’s now focused on a series of AI-based projects.
Alphabet shares have risen 18% in 2023.