Google plans to invest up to $2 billion in generative artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

In late 2022, Google acquired a 10 percent stake in the startup for $300m, but Anthropic's valuation has soared with the generative AI boom.

The investment was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, but has since been confirmed by an Anthropic spokesperson. Google will invest $500 million upfront, and add another $1.5bn over time.

It is not known if the investment includes any cloud computing credits. After the first $300m investment, Anthropic said that it would use Google Cloud as its platform of choice.

But in September, rival Amazon said that it would invest up to $4bn in Anthropic, and become its primary cloud provider. The two companies said that they would also collaborate on the development of future Trainium and Inferentia chips.

Anthropic was founded by a number of former OpenAI employees.