Amazon makes $4B bet on startup in AI race

Amazon announced Monday it will invest up to $4 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, marking the tech giant’s latest move to compete in the AI race with rivals like Google and Microsoft. 

Amazon and Anthropic said Monday they are launching a “broader collaboration” to develop “the most reliable and high-performing foundation models” in the industry. 

Amazon vowed to invest up to $4 billion and said it will have a minority ownership position in the company. 

Anthropic will use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider, while AWS users will be given early access to unique features for model customization and fine-tuning capabilities, the San Francisco-based startup said Monday. 

Founded in 2021 by former employees of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Anthropic labels itself as an AI safety and research company and recently released Claude 2, an AI chatbot.

Amazon developers and engineers will be able to build on Anthropic’s models using Amazon Bedrock — a service that helps customers build and scale generative AI applications using foundation models (FMs), according to the company. Amazon said this will allow developers and engineers to incorporate generative AI capabilities into their work, improve existing applications and establish new customer experiences in Amazon’s businesses. 

“We have tremendous respect for Anthropic’s team and foundation models, and believe we can help improve many customer experiences, short and long-term, through our deeper collaboration,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said.

The investment comes as tech giants vie to become leaders in the development of AI technologies. Earlier this year, Google launched a new AI tool called Bard, widely seen a rival product to the ChatGPT tool.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, announced in July the launch of new AI firm xAI, while remaining a leading voice of caution about how the technology could impact humanity.

The AI race has prompted several calls for regulation from lawmakers who have expressed concerns over the risks of uncontrolled AI development. Senators received briefings and held hearings on AI earlier this year as they seek to understand more about the technological advancements.