The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is currently investigating whether Alphabet’s collaboration with Anthropic could be considered anti-competitive. This scrutiny comes amidst a tech industry race for artificial intelligence (AI) talent and capabilities, prompting the UK regulator to assess the impact of major tech companies partnering with AI startups on market openness and competition.
In October 2023, Alphabet made a $2bn investment in Anthropic, a rival of OpenAI, which has also received significant funding from Amazon. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned in an earnings call the company’s support for third-party models like Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, as well as open-source models such as Gemma 2, Llama, and Mistral.
The CMA’s investigation focuses on how tech giants are influencing the AI landscape by funding AI startups whose services are then integrated into their public cloud infrastructure. Additionally, the CMA is examining partnerships between Microsoft and Mistral AI, Amazon and Anthropic, and Microsoft’s hiring of former employees from Inflection AI to ensure compliance with UK merger regulations.
Josh Mesout, CIO of Civo, highlighted the importance of monitoring powerful partnerships within the industry to prevent stifling competition and innovation. He emphasized the need for a diverse and competitive ecosystem to avoid monopolies that could limit consumer choice and hinder innovation in various industries. Mesout urged regulators to closely scrutinize tech giants’ partnerships with AI startups to maintain a fair and open market, warning against potential negative consequences of unchecked dominance by a few major firms in the AI space.