UK competition watchdog clears $4 billion Amazon Anthropic union • The Register

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided to close its investigation into Amazon’s alliance with Anthropic, saying the deciding factor was the AI ​​tools maker’s lack of local sales.

The regulator issued a call for comment on the matter in April amid concerns that Amazon’s total $4 billion investment in Anthropic could be seen as a merger rather than a cash pinch. At the time, Amazon insisted that it was just an investment, that Anthropic could run its models in any cloud, and that the mega-corporation would not have a director’s seat on Anthropic’s board.

In August, the CMA examined the agreement in more detail to determine whether a more detailed review was necessary. The good news for Amazon and Anthropic is that authorities are not considering it a merger situation.

In its decision, the CMA did not reach a conclusion about whether the partnership could result in Amazon having a material influence over Anthropic. There was no need for that. Anthropic’s UK sales did not exceed £70 million ($93 million) in the UK, and Amazon and Anthropic accounted for no more than 25 percent of the UK market share.

The regulator said: “The CMA therefore does not consider that a relevant merger situation has arisen or may arise.”

An Amazon spokesperson said this The Register:

“We welcome the decision of the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which recognizes its lack of jurisdiction over this collaboration. By investing in Anthropic, we are helping to drive market entry and competition in the generative AI space.”

Earlier this month, the CMA approved Microsoft’s acquisition of Inflection AI for similar reasons – the startup wasn’t big enough to matter. The EU followed suit, although the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) argued that it needed additional powers as the references were dropped due to Inflection’s relatively low sales.

Although the CMA has decided that a deeper investigation into Amazon’s ties to Anthropic is beyond its jurisdiction, it is still reviewing Alphabet’s partnership with Anthropic. Google recently invested an additional $2 billion in the AI ​​industry, on top of the half billion it spent earlier this year.

The CMA did not comment on whether the Alphabet investigation could also be dropped for similar reasons to Amazon’s. The investigation is still ongoing. ®