Google Invests $300 Million In AI-Startup

Google made an investment of $300 million in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup, which makes it the latest tech firm to invest its funds as well as computing power into the field of ‘generative AI’.

The deal

With a 10% stake in the AI startup, Google will provide Anthropic funds at a time when the firm is purchasing substantial computing resources from the cloud computing division of Google.

While Google did confirm that it had indeed made an investment in the company and also had a cloud contract with it, the search engine giant refrained from sharing any further details.

The move by the tech giant showcases the influence that a handful of Big Tech companies have been enjoying of late over the other firms that are also working on artificial intelligence.

These companies require access to cloud computing platforms for handling the giant artificial intelligence (AI) models that have been developed those as Anthropic.

The investment of the search company comes after Microsoft made an investment of about $1 billion three years ago in OpenAI.

Thanks to the deal with Microsoft, OpenAI went on to develop a number of breakthrough AI systems, which resulted in the launch of ChatGPT late last year, a chatbot designed to converse with users via text.

The software giant made yet another multibillion dollar investment in the firm last month.

Generative AI

Both Anthropic as well as OpenAI are working in the flourishing field of generative AI, which comprises of sophisticated computer programs, which can create art, or write scripts within a few seconds.

While Microsoft has attempted to integrate the technology developed by AI into a number of its services, Google’s arrangement with Anthropic is a bit different.

According to sources with knowledge of the arrangement, the company has opted to function as Anthropic’s tech supplier in the AI arm’s race.

Anthropic

Dario Amodei led a group of researchers that launched Anthropic 2021. They had previously been working at OpenAI, but had a disagreement about the direction of the company.

They had become concerned that Microsoft’s investment would shift the focus to a more commercial avenue and detract it from its original mission of the safety of advanced artificial intelligence (AI).

To rival ChatGPT, an intelligent chatbot by the name of Claude has been developed by Anthropic, but it is yet to be released to the public.

Before Google invested in the startup, it had already managed to accumulate funding of about $700 million in late 2022 but had not been reported.

Alameda Research is the biggest investor of the firm, the trading firm that was founded by the co-founder of the FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried.

The company invested $500 million in Anthropic before it filed for bankruptcy in November. It has now been flagged by the FTX bankruptcy estate as an asset for helping in recoveries for creditors.

Google’s cloud division made the investment in Anthropic, which is being led by Thomas Kurian, a former executive at Oracle.

The investment is part of an effort to compete with Microsoft in the rapidly growing AI market.