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The U.K.s ’ antimonopoly authorityhas concludedthat Amazon ’s partnership and equity investment in AI startup Anthropic ca n’t be look into under current merger rules due to the sizing and reach of the sight .
San Francisco - based Anthropic , which has established itself as a public benefit corporation ( PBC ) , has set up around $ 10 billion since its origin . Aside from the $ 4 billion from Amazon , Anthropic also counts Google as a big - name investor , with more than $ 2 billionfromAlphabet ’s subsidiary . The CMA has alsolaunchedan early - degree “ invitation to comment ” on Google ’s investiture that is still pending .
The CMA had been looking at whether key aspects of the Amazon and Anthropic partnership would lead in “ Amazon have fabric influence over Anthropic . ” This is part of a growing vogue in the AI realm , where critics argue that Big Tech is seeking to derive ascendancy over startups byadopting a new M&A approachthat stops curt of a full acquisition . This so - called “ quasi - amalgamation ” might include take inauguration founding father and gift , or making strategic investing .
However , the CMAsaida “ relevant merger situation ” had not been created under the provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 , entail it did n’t even get to a point where it could assess whether Amazon has attained “ material influence ” over Anthropic . This is because Anthropic ’s U.K. turnover does n’t meet the £ 70 million threshold to qualify for investigation , and the companies together with do n’t “ account for a 25 % or more ” part of provision of the good or services in interrogation .
“ As we ’ve made clear , Anthropic is an independent company and our strategical partnerships and investor kinship do not diminish our embodied administration independence or our freedom to partner with others , ” an Anthropic interpreter said in a program line issued to TechCrunch .
This probe was one of many similar investigations launched by the CMA of latterly . It recentlycleared Microsoft ’s Inflection acqui - hire , but concluded that the deal was tantamount to a merger . Microsoft alsododged antitrust scrutinyfor buying a stake in Mistral AI .
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one by one , the CMA has an ongoing case against Microsoft’sclose tieswith OpenAI — itlauncheda formal “ invitation to comment ” for stakeholder last year , but there ’s been no progress to report since .
