CMA has started investigating Amazon’s partnership with AI start-up

The CMA said it has “sufficient information” regarding the tech giant’s partnership with Anthropic and has launched a probe.

The regulator said in a statement on its website that it is “considering whether it is or may be the case that Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic has resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation”.

If this is the case, the CMA is considering whether the partnership has resulted or is expected to result in “a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the UK for goods or services”.

The CMA said it had until October 4 for its “phase 1” decision to either call for a deeper probe into the partnership or clear it of competition concerns.

The partnership, announced in March, included a £3.16bn investment by Amazon into Anthropic, as well as a commitment from the start-up to use Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “Amazon’s collaboration with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns or meet the CMA’s own threshold for review.

“Amazon holds no board seat nor decision-making power at Anthropic, and Anthropic is free to work with any other provider (and indeed has multiple partners).”

A spokesperson for Anthropic added: “Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others.

“We intend to co-operate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

The latest probe follows another CMA investigation into a partnership with Google parent Alphabet’s partnership with Anthropic.

Antitrust regulators are increasingly concerned by various deals struck between start-ups and big tech giants, with regulators in the US, EU and UK signing a joint statement in July committing to safeguarding fair competition.