Partnership or Loophole... UK Launches Investigation into Amazon and Anthropic

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially launched an investigation into the partnership between Amazon and AI startup Anthropic, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others on the 8th (local time).

Amazon announced a total investment of $4 billion (approximately 5.5056 trillion KRW) in Anthropic, forming a partnership. This is the largest investment in Amazon's history.

The CMA plans to examine whether the relationship between Amazon and Anthropic is an investment or a de facto merger. There are concerns that a merger could harm competition within the UK. Based on the results of this first-phase investigation, the CMA will decide by October 4 whether to proceed to a second-phase in-depth investigation. Depending on the findings, the authority may block the transaction between the two companies or require changes to the deal.

Amazon expressed "disappointment" over the decision, stating that "the collaboration with Anthropic does not raise competition concerns and does not meet the CMA's review criteria." They added, "By investing in Anthropic alongside other companies, Amazon helps Anthropic maintain choice in key technologies and expand competition."

Anthropic said it "will cooperate with the CMA," but also stated, "As an independent company, our strategic partnership and investor relationships do not undermine the company's governance independence or freedom to collaborate with other companies."

The CMA previously launched an investigation into whether Microsoft’s (MS) extensive hiring of co-founders and employees from the startup Inflection AI constitutes a merger. It also began a similar investigation into Alphabet’s large-scale investment in Anthropic.

Recently, investigations into big tech companies’ investments in AI startups have been expanding globally. Competition authorities in the US and the European Union (EU) have also initiated investigations into the partnership between MS and OpenAI.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.