UK watchdog quibbles with Amazon’s Anthropic investment

Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) investment in AI-startup Anthropic is under scrutiny by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The CMA has initiated a Phase 1 investigation into whether the $4 billion deal could affect competition in the emerging AI market.

This initial probe will determine if the partnership should be subjected to a more detailed review.

As part of the investment deal, announced in March, Anthropic is committed to using Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud computing provider – it had echoes of Microsoft’s tie-up with ChatGPT creator OpenAI.

Amazon and Anthropic say the partnership does not compromise Anthropic's independence, it can work with other cloud providers, and, also note that Amazon does not hold any decision-making power within the AI company.

In comments to media outlets, as reported by Reuters, Amazon asserted it believes that the collaboration does not meet the CMA's own threshold for review.

It is expected that the British watchdog will decide whether to advance a more in-depth investigation by early October.

Recently, regulators in the UK, the US, and the EU pledged to work together to maintain fair competition in the rapidly growing AI sector.