Google's 14% Stake in Anthropic Raises Antitrust Concerns Amid $750 Million Investment

Legal filings in the ongoing antitrust case against Google have revealed that the search engine giant owns a 14% stake in the AI startup Anthropic, with its investment capped at 15%. Furthermore, Google has no voting rights, no seats on the board, and no observer rights.

Google's 14% Stake in Anthropic Raises Antitrust Concerns Amid $750 Million Investment
Photo by Mitchell Luo / Unsplash

Legal filings in the ongoing antitrust case against Google have revealed that the search engine giant owns a 14% stake in the AI startup Anthropic, with its investment capped at 15%. Furthermore, Google has no voting rights, no seats on the board, and no observer rights.

Google is also set to invest another $750 million in Anthropic next month via a convertible loan. That’s on top of more than $3 billion invested in Anthropic across multiple funding rounds since 2023.

The huge financial commitment has raised eyebrows among regulators and competitors alike, with concerns that it could give Google an unfair advantage in the burgeoning AI sector.

However, Google’s stake in Anthropic is relatively small compared to other tech giants like Amazon and Microsoft, which have also invested heavily in AI startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI.

Despite its substantial financial backing, Google has limited control over Anthropic, which recently achieved a staggering valuation of $61.5 billion. The company reported annual revenue of $1.4 billion, with projections of $34.5 billion by 2027.

Google utilizes Google Cloud for some of Anthropic’s operations, but the startup has publicly favored Amazon Web Services. Amazon has committed up to $8 billion to Anthropic and is building a dedicated AI cluster for the firm.

The revelation of Google’s stake comes after the US Justice Department dropped a proposal that would have required Google to divest its interests in generative AI firms, although Google may still have to report its investments to other regulators.

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