Amazon spared UK antitrust probe over $4 bn investment in AI startup Anthropic

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. U.K. antitrust officials said Amazon.com’s multibillion-dollar investment in artificial-intelligence company Anthropic didn’t qualify for a formal investigation, a win for U.S.

Big Tech weeks after Microsoft was also spared a probe over its links to Inflection AI. The U.K’s Competition and Markets Authority launched a probe in August to determine whether Amazon’s $4 billion investment in Anthropic posed a threat to competition in the country. Officials have now concluded that isn’t the case and said they wouldn’t open a formal investigation.

The investment handed Amazon a minority ownership position in Anthropic as part of efforts from the e-commerce giant to support AI startups it sees as promising in hopes to gain an edge on fierce competitors likes of Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Google last year agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Anthropic. British officials said they closed the case as they essentially lacked jurisdiction because Anthropic’s revenue in the country didn’t meet a threshold of 70 million pounds ($93.9 million) for target companies and because the combined activities of both Amazon and the startup didn’t meet a certain share of goods or services threshold in the U.K.

The watchdog didn’t reach a conclusion on whether the investment led to Amazon having material influence over Anthropic, but said it didn’t believe the arrangement would create a relevant merger scenario. Amazon doesn’t hold a board seat or decision-making powers at the startup. An Amazon spokesperson said the group welcomed the decision, acknowledging the CMA’s lack of jurisdiction.