Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority has opened a Phase 1 investigation into Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s partnership with artificial intelligence company Anthropic.
It follows an initial invitation to comment on the partnership, which will see Amazon become Anthropic’s primary cloud-computing provider for certain applications.
Amazon has provided Anthropic with $4 billion in funding as part of the deal.
Announcing the partnership in March, Amazon’s vice president of data and AI Swami Sivasubramanian said: “Generative AI is poised to be the most transformational technology of our time, and we believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further improve our customers’ experiences, and look forward to what’s next.”
The CMA is now considering whether it “may be the case that Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002”.
In comments published by The Guardian, an Anthropic spokesperson said: “We are an independent company. Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others.
“Amazon does not have a seat on Anthropic’s board, nor does it have any board observer rights. We intend to cooperate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
An Amazon spokesperson added: “We’re disappointed that the UK’s CMA has not ended its probe yet. Amazon’s collaboration with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns or meet the CMA’s own threshold for review.
The CMA’s investigation forms part of a wider inquiry into AI partnerships, with Microsoft and MistralAI’s partnership also under the microscope.
The CMA has until 4 October to make its Phase-1 decision, after which the investigation will either be closed or passed through to a more detailed Phase 2 investigation.