The UK's Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching an antitrust investigation into the relationship between Google's parent company Alphabet and artificial intelligence (AI) start-up Anthropic.
Google invested $2 billion in Anthropic in October 2023, having previously acquired a 10 percent stake in the start-up for $300m in late 2022.
The $2bn investment was spread between a $500m cash injection, with the company set to receive the remaining $1.5bn over an undisclosed period of time.
Under the terms of the deal, Anthropic agreed to make Google its "preferred cloud provider" and the companies are now co-developing AI computing systems.
The investigation launched by the CMA will explore whether this partnership has created a "relevant merger situation" under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 which could harm competition in the UK market.
The case was officially opened on July 30, and interested parties have until August 13, 2024 to comment.
Anthropic was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei.
Reuters reports that a spokesperson for Anthropic said the company would cooperate with the CMA.
"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," Anthropic said.
Google added: "Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world. Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don't demand exclusive tech rights."
In March 2024, Amazon invested $2.75bn in Anthropic, the second round of funding provided by the company under a previously agreed plan to invest up to $4bn in the startup.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has a similar investigation underway looking into AI deals made by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Anthropic. Announced on January 25, the inquiry will investigate how these deals may impact competition in the market, with concerns that the AI boom is deepening the power of a handful of companies.
