In a move that suggests the corporate world is still very much playing Pokémon with AI startups, Amazon has officially closed its $2.75 billion investment into Anthropic, the artificial intelligence company best known for developing chatbots that attempt to sound like they’ve read a few philosophy books for fun.
The tech giant had initially promised the funds last year in a sort of layaway deal, committing $1.25 billion upfront with the option to complete the full payment later if all went well, which apparently it did. Amazon confirmed the remaining $2.75 billion went through, making it the largest check it has written for a single outside company. For perspective, this is the corporate equivalent of buying avocado toast daily for the next 7.6 million years, give or take.
Anthropic, once described as OpenAI’s shy but brilliant cousin, has responded with polite excitement, noting that the partnership would allow it to continue developing Claude, its AI chatbot, in the warm cloud-based embrace of Amazon Web Services. If nothing else, Claude will now have excellent uptime and significantly fewer server-related existential crises.
This deal places Amazon shoulder to shoulder with other tech behemoths playing friendly landlord to AI startups. Microsoft has poured billions into OpenAI while Google has also invested in Anthropic, transforming the AI landscape into something resembling a very expensive middle school group project where everyone insists they are contributing equally.
Amazon customers probably will not notice anything immediately, unless Alexa suddenly starts referencing Kant when asked about the weather, but the company clearly views Anthropic as a cornerstone for its AI strategy. Given that Anthropic has promised its models are “steered towards helpfulness, honesty and harmlessness,” it may be the first time in history that being earnest is actually profitable.
For now, Amazon gets preferred access to Anthropic’s technology and AI models which will be integrated into products, services and possibly the occasional overzealous fridge. Whether this will help Amazon outsmart its rivals or merely make Alexa better at small talk remains to be seen.
Still, nothing says “strategic alignment” like $2.75 billion and a surprisingly polite chatbot.