Google will pay the remaining $1.5 billion over time, as per The Wall Street Journal, after having already invested $500 million in the deal.
A recent report claims that Google has increased its artificial intelligence (AI) wagers by contributing an additional $2 billion to the AI startup Anthropic.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported on October 27, cited people familiar with the matter, claims that Google has already contributed $500 million up front to Anthropic, a competitor of ChatGPT creators OpenAI, and will repay the remaining $1.5 billion over time.
The massive agreement augments Google’s earlier 2023 $550 million investment in Anthropic.
A few months ago, Google Cloud also signed a multiyear contract worth over $3 billion with Anthropic, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited a person familiar with the negotiations. The announcement comes after Amazon’s historic $4 billion September investment in Anthropic.
The majority of these investments are being used by Anthropic to train its AI systems, like AI assistant Claude, in the hopes that the company will make the next significant advancement in the AI field.
OpenAI, which has been funded by Microsoft alone for more than $13 billion since 2019, is situated on the opposing side of the debate. It is actively developing more sophisticated iterations of its AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
Following its November 2022 launch, the well-known chatbot gained over 100 million users in just two months, drawing interest from venture capital firms across the globe who were considering making investments in the field.
Siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who co-founded Anthropic, had previously worked at OpenAI but left in 2021 due to disagreements with Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, regarding the safety risks involved in developing AI systems.
Prior to Google and Amazon, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, provided the majority of Anthropic’s funding. He contributed roughly $530 million to the organisation in April 2022, or roughly seven months before FTX failed.
The increase in Anthropic’s value is thought to be encouraging for FTX creditors, who are hoping to get their money back in full from FTX’s bankruptcy case.