The UK competition regulator has cleared Google’s $2 billion investment in Anthropic. and others. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially concluded that the company did not gain a “material influence” over AI startup Anthropic as a result of the investment.
An ongoing investigation into the partnership was also suspended, with the UK’s antitrust watchdog saying the investment did not qualify for a full investigation under merger rules. This is after the first stage .
“Anthropic is an independent company, and our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others,” a company spokesperson said after announcing the CMA results.
Google’s investment in Anthropic gives the company non-voting shares and advisory rights on important business matters. Anthropic is better known which is in direct competition with . CMA earlier this year An “interconnected web” of partnerships and investments in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence.
The CMA also allowed a similar investment to go through . It didn’t happen On the grounds that Anthropic’s UK turnover does not exceed £70m and the two parties do not account for 25 per cent or more of the region’s supply of AI LLMs and chatbots.
However, Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI . The watchdog cleared Microsoft’s investments and .
