Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reportedly contemplating its second multi-billion-dollar investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, which leverages its cloud services for training.
What Happened: Following its initial $4 billion investment last year, the e-commerce giant is now planning investment in the startup co-founded by former OpenAI executives Dario and Daniela Amodei, reported The Information, citing a person familiar with the discussion.
The Andy Jassy-led company has reportedly asked Anthropic to use a significant number of servers powered by chips developed by the cloud computing giant.
However, Anthropic reportedly prefers to use Amazon servers powered by Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) designed AI chips.
Last year, Anthropic also secured a $500 million investment from Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), which pledged to invest an additional $1.5 billion over time.
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Why It Matters: Amazon's initial $4 billion investment in Anthropic faced scrutiny from U.K. regulators over anti-competitive concerns.
Last month, U.K. antitrust officials also launched an investigation into whether Alphabet Inc.'s investment in AI startup Anthropic could stifle competition.
Meanwhile, AI startups have been attracting significant investments. OpenAI's valuation soared to $157 billion following a funding round.
Perplexity, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, also reportedly saw its valuation triple to $9 billion in its fourth funding round.
Price Action: Amazon shares closed Thursday's session up 1.48% at $210.16. In after-hours trading, the tech giant's shares rose slightly further, reaching $210.27 at the time of writing, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
