Googles 2 billion Anthropic investment faces antitrust review in the UK

Coin World News Report:
Since the rapid development of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, tech giants have been acquiring AI startups. Recently, UK antitrust officials mentioned that they are investigating Google’s investment in another AI startup, Anthropic.
Officials hope to ensure that this investment does not pose a threat to competition. Similar collaborations between Anthropic and Amazon were approved earlier.
In July, the Competition and Markets Authority began reviewing Google’s investment in Anthropic. Now, a merger investigation into this matter has begun, and a decision will be made on December 19, 2024, as to whether further investigation is necessary.
Investment in AI startups has been booming.
Since the emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT at the end of 2022, large tech companies have been heavily investing in AI startups. Last year, Google raised $2 billion in investment for Anthropic to improve its position in the AI Grand Challenge. The objective of this tech giant is clear; it wants to compete with other rivals such as Amazon, OpenAI, and Microsoft.
In contrast, Amazon invested $4 billion in Anthropic. After all, it is a startup founded by former employees of OpenAI. Anthropic has been actively competing with ChatGPT to secure significant investments from companies that can provide the necessary training resources for large-scale language models.
The CMA investigation is a setback for tech giants including Google.
The ongoing investigation is a setback for search engine giant Google. This is because just a month ago, UK antitrust officials approved a larger investment in the same startup by Amazon. Moreover, the CMA has provided a fresh start for former Inflection AI employees hired by Microsoft.
A spokesperson for Google stated, “Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world.”
Meanwhile, a representative from Anthropic mentioned that the startup will fully cooperate with the CMA and provide a clear picture of investment and business cooperation.
A representative from Anthropic stated, “We are an independent company, and our strategic partnerships or investor relationships will not undermine the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to collaborate with others.”
Google has no veto power over Anthropic’s business decisions. This is because the company does not have any board seats or voting rights within the AI company.
This not only affects Google but also other tech giants, as the Federal Trade Commission began investigating collaboration around generating AI partners early in 2024. It includes Alphabet, Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon, and Microsoft. The FTC has ordered these five companies to provide more information about their AI startup investments.