The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it is gathering information regarding Google’s partnership with GenAI startup Anthropic to determine if it qualifies as a merger that could negatively impact competition in the UK.
In October, Google-parent company Alphabet reportedly committed $2 billion to the San Francisco-based startup, which has developed Claude, a competitor to ChatGPT. This investment followed a previous $300 million investment in return for a 10% stake in Anthropic. The CMA is now inviting “interested parties” to comment on the deal by August 13, after which it will decide whether to proceed with a formal investigation.
The CMA’s scrutiny of Google’s partnership with Anthropic is part of a broader investigation into the competitive impacts of big tech investments in the AI sector.
The regulator is also examining Amazon’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic and Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI. Additionally, the CMA has launched a formal probe into Microsoft following reports that it poached key team members from Inflection AI, another AI startup it had previously invested in.
In April, the CMA revealed it had identified an “interconnected web of over 90 partnerships and strategic investments” in the AI sector involving major tech companies. The authority expressed concerns that these deals could further entrench the market power of big tech firms across the entire foundational model value chain.
The CMA’s efforts are part of a larger international movement to ensure fair competition in the AI industry. Last week, the CMA joined forces with antitrust regulators in the EU and the US, issuing a joint statement highlighting the risks posed by strategic partnerships and investments in AI, which could potentially influence market outcomes to the detriment of competition.
