Amazon has agreed to invest up to $4 billion in the AI startup Anthropic, according to a report by TechCrunch. This significant investment marks Amazon's strategic move to intensify its rivalry against tech giants like Microsoft, Meta (formerly Facebook), Google, and Nvidia in the rapidly growing AI sector, which many technologists believe could be the next frontier of technological advancement.
As part of this investment agreement, Amazon will initially invest $1.25 billion to acquire a minority stake in Anthropic. Anthropic, akin to Google's Bard and Microsoft-backed OpenAI, operates an AI-powered chatbot with text analysis capabilities. Notably, Amazon has the option to increase its investment in Anthropic up to a total of $4 billion.
TechCrunch reported earlier this year that Anthropic, which also boasts Google as an investor, has ambitious plans to raise as much as $5 billion over the next two years. The startup recently launched its first premium subscription plan for its chatbot, Claude 2. Additionally, Anthropic is working on a groundbreaking AI model tentatively named "Claude-Next," which aims to be ten times more powerful than existing AI models.
However, Anthropic cautioned that achieving this milestone would require a substantial investment of one billion dollars over the next 18 months. To put this in perspective, Microsoft has invested as much as $11 billion in OpenAI over the years.
In Amazon, Anthropic has secured a well-funded strategic investor that not only provides capital but also offers computing resources essential for developing future AI models and reaching a broader customer base.
As part of the investment agreement, Anthropic will leverage Amazon's cloud computing platform, AWS, as its primary cloud provider for critical workloads, including safety research and the development of future foundation models. Anthropic will also utilize AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips for building, training, and deploying its future AI models. It's worth noting that Anthropic has been an AWS customer since 2021.
Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, expressed optimism about the collaboration, believing that it will enhance customer experiences by harnessing the capabilities of AWS services like Amazon Bedrock and AWS Trainium.
Anthropic, which boasts backing from notable investors such as Spark Capital, Salesforce, Sound Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Zoom, has raised a total of $2.7 billion to date. The startup was valued at approximately $5 billion in May of this year following a funding round that secured $450 million. However, the exact valuation Amazon has placed on Anthropic in this latest investment remains undisclosed.
This strategic partnership between Amazon and Anthropic underscores the growing importance of AI in shaping the future of technology and business, with Amazon positioning itself at the forefront of this innovation.
Source: TechCrunch.com