Google to invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic as search giant spreads its AI bets
Google Plans to invest up to $40 billion anthropicThe companies confirmed this on Friday, as tech giants increase their strategic investments in artificial intelligence leaders.
The deal includes an initial $10 billion from Google, based on Anthropic’s latest valuation of $380 billion. The remaining $30 billion is tied to specific performance milestones.
Bloomberg was the first to report the agreement.
Anthropic said the deal expands a long-standing partnership between the two companies. Earlier this month, Anthropic acquired 5 gigawatts worth of computing capacity. an announcement with Google and broadcom It will start coming online next year. Anthropic may decide to add additional gigawatts of computing in the future.
Google provides access to Anthropic’s Claude models through its cloud division. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The company also offers specialized chips called tensor processing units (TPUs) as alternatives to Nvidia’s graphics processing units.
Meanwhile, Google Gemini competes with Anthropic in the market for AI models and services.
The relationship between the two companies dates back to 2023, when Google invested $300 million in the artificial intelligence laboratory in exchange for a roughly 10% stake. Months later, Google poured in another $2 billion. Prior to Friday’s announcement, Google’s investment in Anthropic exceeded $3 billion. reportedly He owned 14% of the company’s shares.
Now leading tech companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in leading AI labs (OpenAI and Anthropic), in funding rounds that far exceed previous investments in start-ups. Most of this investment will return as income.
Anthropic’s latest deal with Google comes at a time when the company is working on address Increasing business, developer and consumer demand for Claude has put “inevitable pressure” on its infrastructure. OpenAI recently criticized its chief rival for failing to adequately secure computing.
Google’s investment resembles a separate agreement signed by Anthropic Amazon just weeks ago. According to the statement, the e-commerce giant invested $5 billion in the company and agreed to invest up to $20 billion in the future depending on “certain business milestones.”
“Our users are telling us that Claude is becoming increasingly important to the way they work, and we need to build the infrastructure to keep up with rapidly growing demand,” Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei said in a statement at the time. he said. “Our collaboration with Amazon will allow us to continue advancing AI research as we deliver Claude to our customers, including more than 100,000 buildings on AWS.”
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by a group of researchers and executives who left OpenAI. The company’s AI products, particularly its Claude Code assistant, have exploded in popularity in the past year. Anthropic’s annual revenue exceeded $30 billion.
–CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report
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