The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has given the green light for Google parent Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) to pursue a partnership with artificial intelligence research firm Anthropic.
It will allow Alphabet to acquire non-voting shares, provide convertible debt financing, and sign agreements for compute and AI model distribution with Anthropic.
The CMA was investigating whether Alphabet had obtained material influence over Anthropic thus falling afoul of competition rules.
However, the regulator said it “does not believe that Google has acquired material influence over Anthropic as a result of the partnership”.
Additionally, the CMA noted that Anthropic’s UK turnover does not exceed £70 million, so the partnership fails to meet the criteria of a ‘relevant merger situation’ under UK law.
The CMA made a similar ruling in September regarding Anthropic’s partnership with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN).