Google to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic

Google is planning to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence firm confirmed, expanding a long-standing alliance between the two companies.

The investment builds on a partnership in which Anthropic will use custom Google chips and cloud computing services to power its technology.

An Anthropic representative confirmed to AFP that the agreement sees an initial $10 billion investment from Google. The remaining $30 billion will depend on meeting performance milestones.

The announcement came just days after Amazon revealed plans to boost its collaboration with Anthropic with a new $5 billion investment, and a plan to invest $20 billion more if performance goals are met.

For its part, Anthropic said it has committed to spending more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology to power AI in the coming decade.

Anthropic is among AI sector rivals spending tens of billions of dollars on computing infrastructure to lead in the technology.

Anthropic said in early April that it had tripled its annualized revenues quarter-on-quarter to over $30 billion -- outpacing OpenAI for the first time.

Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei visited the White House, where both sides struck a friendly tone, following a dispute over the tech company’s refusal to grant the military unconditional use of its AI models.

WAM