Google parent's partnership with AI startup Anthropic under UK scrutiny

By Martin Coulter

(Reuters) -Britain's antitrust watchdog is scrutinising Google-parent Alphabet's partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic and its impact on competition, the regulator said on Tuesday.

More than 18 months after Microsoft-backed OpenAI triggered an AI boom with the release of ChatGPT, antitrust regulators around the world have been increasingly concerned by multiple deals struck between smaller industry startups and big tech giants.

Agreements under scrutiny include Microsoft's partnerships with startups such as OpenAI, Inflection AI, and Mistral AI, as well as Alphabet's ties to other smaller companies such as Anthropic and Cohere.

Anthropic's Claude AI models have vied for prominence with OpenAI's GPT series.

Last week, Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a joint statement alongside its counterparts in the United States and the European Union, promising to work together to safeguard fair competition in the AI industry.

Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, last year said it had secured $500 million in investment from Alphabet, promising another $1.5 billion over time. Anthropic also uses Alphabet's Google Cloud services as part of its operations.

On Tuesday, the CMA said it was now seeking views on whether the Alphabet-Anthropic partnership could lessen competition in the UK, and has set a deadline of Aug. 13 for its invitation to comment.

A spokesperson for Anthropic said the company would cooperate with the CMA and provide the "complete picture" about its partnership with Google. "We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others," they said.

The CMA will decide whether to launch an official investigation at the end of this process.

A Google spokesperson said: "Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world. Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don't demand exclusive tech rights."

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru and Martin Coulter in London; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Louise Heavens and David Evans)

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