-- Google has committed to invest $2 billion in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, solidifying its relationship with the startup darling and stoking the Silicon Valley frenzy for AI.House Speaker Mike Johnson’s First Big Bill Cuts Biden’s Climate Change FundingS&P 500 Extends Slide From Its July Peak to 10%: Markets Wrap
Prior to the financing, Google also signed a major cloud agreement with Anthropic, according to one person familiar with the details. The cloud deal, in which Anthropic will use Google’s suite of computing services, was even larger than the latest investment, and will stretch over multiple years, the person said.
The relationship between Google, Amazon and Anthropic has occasionally been awkward. Google knew this summer that Anthropic was seeking to raise more money, according to one person familiar with the matter. But details of the startup’s embrace of Amazon Web Services still came as a surprise to some people inside the search giant, according to that person and two others familiar with the matter.
The deals pit the two tech giants against Microsoft Corp., which is putting more than $10 billion into Anthropic rival OpenAI. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are building chatbots with generative AI technology, capable of generating content in response to prompts. Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude, has put a particular emphasis on responsible AI and reducing bias in the technology.