Amazon has entered into a substantial $4 billion investment agreement with Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, aimed at advancing the development of high-performance foundation models.
Anthropic revealed this partnership on social media, emphasizing that the investment will also provide access to Amazon Web Services Trainium and Inferentia chips. In return, Anthropic will offer enhanced support for Amazon Bedrock, a producer of foundation models, ensuring secure model customization and fine-tuning for businesses. Amazon teams will also have the opportunity to leverage Anthropic’s models through Bedrock.
Moreover, Amazon is taking a minority stake in Anthropic as part of the deal, with no disruption to Anthropic’s governance. The AI startup, founded by former members of Microsoft-backed OpenAI, is actively involved in AI community initiatives and government-led efforts in AI development and regulation.
This substantial investment from Amazon follows a $100 million investment from South Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom in August, further cementing Anthropic’s position in the AI landscape.
