Amazon has agreed to invest an additional $5 billion in AI startup Anthropic, bringing its total investment in the company to $13 billion. As part of the deal, Anthropic has committed to spend over $100 billion on Amazon's cloud computing services, AWS, over the next decade. This will provide Anthropic with up to 5 GW of new computing capacity to train and run its AI model, Claude.
The investment structure echoes a similar agreement made by Amazon with OpenAI just two months ago, which valued OpenAI at $730 billion before funding. The deal between Amazon and Anthropic focuses on Amazon's custom chips, including Graviton and Trainium, which are designed for low-power computing and AI acceleration. Anthropic has secured the option to buy capacity on future Amazon chip releases.
The investment is a significant milestone for Anthropic, which has reportedly been exploring new funding options. Venture capital firms have offered the company capital in deals that could value it at over $800 billion. This deal with Amazon may be seen as a precursor to an upcoming funding round or a demonstration of the company's growing importance in the AI space.
The agreement highlights Amazon's efforts to establish itself as a leader in cloud computing and AI, particularly through its custom chip designs. The deal is also notable for its long-term commitment to AWS services, with Anthropic set to spend billions over the next decade on cloud capacity.
