In a crucial move for Google’s economic interests in artificial intelligence, UK antitrust investigators have chosen not to conduct a thorough investigation into the internet giant’s cooperation with San Francisco-based AI firm Anthropic.
The CMA launched a “stage 1” probe into Alphabet’s investments in Anthropic, a San Francisco-based startup that develops LLMs, and Claude, a chatbot similar to Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The watchdog looked into methods Google may exert influence over Anthropic and determined that the “available evidence” did not show that Google has the “ability” to do so.
Alphabet reportedly invested $300 million in Anthropic early last year, followed by an additional $2 billion.
“Our investigation has shown that Google has not acquired the ability to materially influence Anthropic’s commercial policy and therefore the partnership does not meet the jurisdictional threshold for UK merger control to apply,” said Joel Bamford, the executive director of the CMA.
“It’s through merger reviews that we can appropriately assess the nature and impact of complex partnerships such as the one between Google and Anthropic,” he said.
Alphabet’s engagement with Anthropic includes a significant financial commitment; the corporation reportedly spent $300 million on the startup last year, followed by another $2 billion to support its growth.
This ruling exemplified the regulatory scrutiny that major tech businesses face when partnering with smaller, more innovative enterprises.
Regulators have voiced worry that such relationships, commonly referred to as “quasi-mergers,” could result in significant influence without formal acquisitions.
We earlier reported that Anthropic is reportedly the focus of a copyright infringement case filed in California.
