Amazon pumps another $4bn into AI start-up Anthropic

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Amazon has invested another $4bn in artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the company to $8bn, as Big Tech’s race to dominate the generative AI sector intensifies.

Amazon invested an initial $1.25bn in September last year, and increased that to $4bn at the end of March.

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive of Anthropic, said its AI software Claude had had “a year of breakout growth”.

“Our collaboration with Amazon has been instrumental in bringing Claude’s capabilities to millions of end users across tens of thousands of customers,” he added.

“We’re looking forward to working with Amazon to train and power our most advanced AI model.”

Amazon is increasing its bet on Anthropic even as scrutiny from regulators in the US, UK and EU has grown over concerns that deals between Big Tech and the most prominent AI start-ups may pose competition risks.

This is a developing story