Google’s partnership with AI company Anthropic faces UK watchdog probe

Google’s partnership with the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic faces a formal UK competition investigation.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe.

It sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.

The competition watchdog has until December 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”.

AI startup Anthropic focused on safety

San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make 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”.

“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.

The UK regulator has been scrutinising several AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalise on the artificial intelligence boom.

Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion (€3.6 billion) deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.