Amazon, the web services giant, has announced that it has fulfilled its commitment to invest $4 billion in the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic. In a post on March 27, Amazon revealed that it has now become a minority owner of the company after investing an additional $2.75 billion. This follows Amazon’s initial investment of $1.25 billion, which was announced in September last year.
Anthropic, which was founded in 2021 by former members of OpenAI, has developed its own AI chatbot named Claude, which competes with ChatGPT. In early March, Anthropic released Claude 3, its most powerful version yet, capable of analyzing images.
In addition to the investment, Amazon disclosed that Anthropic has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider for “mission-critical workloads.” This includes safety research and the development of future foundation models. Anthropic will also leverage AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips to build, train, and deploy its upcoming models.
Swami Sivasubramanian, the Vice President of Data and AI at AWS, expressed his belief that the collaboration with Anthropic will enhance the customer experience and referred to generative AI as “the most transformational technology of our time.”
Furthermore, Amazon recently introduced its own AI-powered assistant called Amazon Q, designed specifically for businesses. This chatbot is capable of engaging in conversations, problem-solving, content creation, and more.
Amazon is not the only major tech company interested in Anthropic. Google announced a $500 million investment in the startup last October, with a commitment to increase the investment to $2 billion.
Like other prominent AI chatbot developers, Anthropic has faced legal challenges related to copyright and data infringement. In January, the company fought a lawsuit brought by Universal Music Group (UMG), which accused Anthropic of unlawfully using and copying copyrighted works from UMG during AI training. Anthropic contested the claims, stating that no client data was used in its AI training and that it would protect customers from copyright infringement claims arising from authorized use of its services or outputs.
In conclusion, Amazon has fulfilled its investment commitment to Anthropic, solidifying its position as a minority owner of the AI startup. Anthropic’s collaboration with Amazon will involve utilizing AWS for critical workloads and leveraging AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips for future models. The legal battles faced by Anthropic highlight the challenges faced by AI chatbot developers in navigating copyright and data infringement issues.