Britain Begins Investigation Of Amazon's AI Partnership With Anthropic

Amazon's partnership with AI startup Anthropic has CMA surveillance (photo: x @AnthropicaI)

JAKARTA Britain's competition watchdog on Thursday announced that it had started an investigation into Amazon's partnership with AI startup Anthropic, days after starting a similar investigation into Alphabet's collaboration with the startup.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that it has until October 4 to make a first-stage decision, namely whether to refer to this artificial intelligence-focused partnership (AI) for a more in-depth investigation or clear it of competition concerns.

Amazon's collaboration with Anthropic has not raised competition concerns or met the CMA threshold for review, an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"Amazon has no seats on the board or decision-making powers in Anthropic, and Anthropic is free to work with other providers (and actually has several partners)," the spokesperson added, repeating comments from Anthropic's spokesman.

Our strategic partnership and investment relations do not reduce the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with other parties, said Anthropic spokesman.

In late July, CMA launched an investigation into Google's partnership, Alphabet's parent company, with Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI executives and Dario brothers and Daniela Amodei.

Antitrust regulators around the world are increasingly concerned about various deals between small industry startups and big tech giants. Regulators in the United States, the European Union, and Britain signed a joint statement last July promising cooperation to maintain fair competition in the industry.