UK watchdog probes Alphabet’s deal with Anthropic

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By Martin Coulter

(Reuters) – Britain’s antitrust watchdog launched a probe on Thursday into Google parent Alphabet’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic over competition concerns.

Almost two years after Microsoft-backed OpenAI triggered an AI boom with the release of ChatGPT, regulators around the world have been increasingly concerned by deals struck between big tech companies and smaller startups.

Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, last year said it had secured a $500 million investment from Alphabet, which promised to invest another $1.5 billion over time.

The startup also uses Alphabet’s Google Cloud services as part of its operations.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been scrutinising Alphabet’s relationship with Anthropic since July, when it began seeking views on whether the deal could undermine competition in the UK.

The regulator has set Dec. 19 as the deadline for its Phase 1 decision, at which point it will decide whether to carry the investigation forward.

A spokesperson for Anthropic said the company would cooperate with the CMA’s investigation and provide a “complete picture” of 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,” the spokesperson said.

An Alphabet spokesperson said it was committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, we don’t demand exclusive tech rights,” the person added.

(Reporting by Martin Coulter in London, Prerna Bedi and Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Susan Fenton)