Anthropic, a prominent AI research company and competitor to OpenAI, has secured an additional $4 billion investment from Amazon. This significant funding commitment underscores a deepening partnership between the two companies, with Anthropic agreeing to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary platform for training its advanced generative AI models. This collaboration also involves working with Annapurna Labs, AWS’s chipmaking division, to enhance the efficiency of AWS’s custom-built Trainium chips designed for AI model training. Anthropic highlighted in a blog post that their engineers are collaborating closely with Annapurna’s team to optimize computational performance, laying the groundwork for future advancements in AI research and development.
Amazon confirmed that Anthropic will utilize the latest Trainium2 chips to train upcoming AI models and will deploy these models using Inferentia, Amazon’s in-house chip designed to accelerate AI inference. AWS CEO Matt Garman expressed admiration for Anthropic’s innovation and responsible AI development, emphasizing the companies’ shared commitment to pushing the boundaries of generative AI technology.
This latest investment brings Amazon’s total contribution to Anthropic to $8 billion, further solidifying its position as a minority investor. In total, Anthropic has raised $13.7 billion in venture capital to date. Earlier funding rounds included a $4 billion agreement split into two tranches, with Anthropic agreeing to prioritize AWS infrastructure. While Anthropic has previously favored Nvidia chips, the substantial financial backing from Amazon appears to have made AWS's silicon a critical choice. The AI company reportedly projected a burn rate exceeding $2.7 billion in 2024 as it scaled up its operations, making this funding crucial to its long-term plans.
Anthropic’s Claude models, a family of generative AI systems, have seen rapid adoption. Through Amazon Bedrock, AWS’s platform for hosting and fine-tuning AI models, Claude’s capabilities are now utilized by tens of thousands of customers. Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO, Dario Amodei, credited this partnership with enabling Claude to reach millions of end users. Additionally, Anthropic has joined forces with AWS and Palantir to provide Claude’s capabilities to U.S. intelligence and defense agencies. Amazon announced that AWS customers will soon have early access to fine-tune Claude models using their own data, a move expected to drive further growth.
The collaboration between Amazon and Anthropic has drawn regulatory scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority have both investigated the potential impact of tech giants’ investments in AI startups on the competitive landscape. However, these partnerships have so far received approval, including Amazon’s prior deal with Anthropic and Alphabet’s investment in the company.
Despite its growth, Anthropic has encountered challenges, including delays in launching its next-generation Claude model, Claude 3.5 Opus, and a price increase for one of its current models. To diversify its revenue streams, the company has introduced new tools, subscription plans, and mobile apps, while also expanding its operations internationally. Notable hires, including co-founders of Instagram and OpenAI, have further bolstered its talent pool.
Founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and a team of former OpenAI employees, Anthropic has consistently positioned itself as a safety-focused alternative in the competitive AI landscape. With this latest funding and strengthened ties to AWS, the company aims to remain at the forefront of generative AI innovation, leveraging cutting-edge technology and partnerships to advance its research and development efforts.
