UK regulator looks at Google's partnership with Anthropic

The Competition and Markets Authority has begun a preliminary investigation into a partnership between Google and the AI startup Anthropic, marking the latest in a string of investigations into deals between big tech companies and smallerAI ones. Google invested 2bn (about 1.56bn) into Anthropic in 2023, shortly after signing a cloud computing agreement with the startup, which develops the Claude LLM and chatbot. The CMA is now considering whether the partnership has "resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation" which would allow the agency to begin a formal investigation. It is inviting comments over the next two weeks. The move comes amid broader concerns about competition in the generative AI sector. A deal between Amazon and Anthropic is also being investigated by the CMA as a potential merger after Amazon took a 4bn stake in the company and signed a deal to become one of the startup's cloud computing providers.