The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it is investigating Alphabet’s investments in AI firm Anthropic.

Anthropic is viewed as the main rival to OpenAI, with its Claude AI models often surpassing ChatGPT. Given Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI, it’s no surprise that Alphabet has invested $300 million in its chief rival, and recently announced it would invest an additional $2 billion.

Evidently, that investment is enough for the CMA investigate the partnership between the two companies.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) hereby gives notice pursuant to paragraph (b) of the definition of ‘initial period’ in section 34ZA(3) of the Enterprise Act 2002 (the Act) that it has sufficient information in relation to the partnership between Alphabet and Anthropic PBC (the Partnership) to enable it to begin an investigation for the purposes of deciding whether to make a reference for a phase 2 investigation.

The initial period defined in section 34ZA(3) of the Act in relation to the Partnership will therefore commence on the first working day after the date of this notice, ie on 25 October 2024. The end of the initial period and the deadline for the CMA to announce its decision is whether to refer the Partnership for a phase 2 investigation is therefore 19 December 2024

The CMA is taking a keen eye on Anthropic’s investments, with the agency announcing in August that it was opening an investigation into Amazon’s investments in Anthropic, specifically to determine if the $4 billion investment represented a merger between the two companies. Anthropic denied any such conclusion when the investigation was launched.

“We are an independent company,” a company spokesperson said at the time. “Amazon does not have a seat on Anthropic’s board, nor does it have any board observer rights. We intend to cooperate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

Similarly, Google provided a statement to Engadget saying that its investment in Anthropic did not constitute a cloud-exclusivity contract.

“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email to the outlet. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”

In the case of Amazon, the CMA ultimately decided not to pursue its investigation, saying it “does not therefore believe that it is or may be the case that a relevant merger situation has been created.”