Google invests $300 million in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic

Google has invested around $300 million (R$1.53 billion) in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, becoming the latest tech giant to invest money and computing power in a new generation of companies trying to claim a place in the growing field of “generative AI”.

The terms of the deal, in which Google will own about 10%, require Anthropic to use the money to buy computing resources from the search firm’s cloud computing division, said three people familiar with the deal.

Google’s move underscores the clout that a small number of big tech companies have gained over other AI companies, which need access to cloud computing platforms to handle the giant AI models developed by groups like Anthropic.

The search firm’s investment also mirrors the $1 billion compute cash investment Microsoft made in OpenAI three years ago.

The Microsoft deal put OpenAI in a position to build a range of innovative AI systems, culminating in the launch late last year of ChatGPT, a robot that can converse with users via text. The software giant last month followed up on what it described as a second “multi-year, multi-billion dollar” investment in the company.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic are looking to develop generative AI, sophisticated computer programs that can write text and create art in seconds.

While Microsoft has sought to integrate OpenAI technology into many of its own services, Google’s relationship with Anthropic is limited to acting as a technology provider for the company, in what has become an AI arms race, according to people familiar with the deal.

Anthropic was formed in 2021 when a group of researchers led by Dario Amodei left OpenAI after a disagreement over the company’s direction. They worried that Microsoft’s first investment in OpenAI would put it on a more commercial route and undermine its original focus on advanced AI security.

Anthropic has developed an intelligent chatbot called Claude, which rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, although it has yet to be released to the public.

The startup raised more than $700 million ahead of Google’s investment, which was made in late 2022 but had not been previously reported. The company’s biggest investor is Alameda Research, the crypto hedge fund of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which invested $500 million before declaring bankruptcy last year. The FTX bankruptcy estate flagged Anthropic as an asset that could help creditors with recoveries.

Google’s investment was made by its cloud division, led by Thomas Kurian, a former Oracle executive. Bringing Anthropic’s data-intensive computing work to Google’s data centers is part of an effort to build on the leadership that Microsoft has achieved in the fast-growing AI market thanks to its work with OpenAI. Google’s cloud division is also working with other startups such as Cohere and C3 to try to secure a bigger foothold in AI.

Google and Anthropic declined to comment on the investment, or what influence the tech giant would have on the startup’s business.

According to a Delaware law filing, where Anthropic is incorporated, it owns two classes of stock, one of which has ten times the voting rights of the other. Dual class stock deals like this one are often used by tech company founders to ensure they remain in control and can dilute the influence of outside investors.

(Contributed by Tim Bradshaw)

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves