Amazon is investing a whopping $4 billion into Anthropic, a rival to the AI creator OpenAI, in a move to increase competition in the AI wars. With this investment, Amazon has taken a minority stake in the startup, which will use Amazon’s AWS cloud and custom-made Trainium chip to rival Nvidia’s processors.
Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, has since become one of the most rapidly expanding AI companies after raising $750 million prior to Amazon’s backing. It is the creator of Claude, an AI assistant described as a “friendly, enthusiastic colleague or personal assistant” that can interact with users and respond to instructions in a more conversational manner than ChatGPT.
Analysts have suggested that Amazon's investment in Anthropic is a move to strengthen its competitive edge in the AI wars. According to Conor Grennan, Dean of Students and Head of Generative AI at NYU Stern, the deal is a strategic move to cement the company's cloud dominance, bolster its AI chips against Nvidia, and strengthen Alexa. He added that the investment gives startups access to costly cloud compute and infrastructure as they develop new models.
NYU Stern's Grennan added that Anthropic's potential for scaling up "could generate billions of dollars in revenue for AWS," Amazon said. Customers of AWS will be able to gain access to Anthropic's technology, offering early access to unique features related to customization and fine-tuning capabilities. "We have great admiration for Anthropic's team and models, and look forward to helping many of our customers experience better results in the near and distant future through our strengthened relationship," said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.