Google is making a substantial investment in Anthropic, a direct competitor of OpenAI, focusing on the development of advanced large language models.
Google is set to invest up to $2 billion in Anthropic PBC, a significant portion of which—$500 million—will be provided upfront, with the rest to follow over time. This investment will enable Anthropic to pursue its ambitious goal of creating a large language model that’s “10 times more capable” than current AI products.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI engineering executives, Anthropic has developed two notable language models: Claude-2 and Claude Instant. These models can perform tasks similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, including generating text, coding, and problem-solving.
Anthropic’s models stand out due to their impressive data ingestion capacity. Users can input up to 70,000 words into Claude-2 and Claude Instant prompts, allowing them to perform complex tasks such as summarizing entire books.
Google’s involvement with Anthropic isn’t new. In the past, Google invested $300 million for a 10% stake in the company. Additionally, in May, Google participated in a $450 million funding round for Anthropic.
Amazon recently invested up to $4 billion in Anthropic. As part of this deal, Anthropic selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider. AWS will support Anthropic’s research with AI training and inference chips.
Anthropic’s valuation has seen a significant boost, although it may still be lower than OpenAI’s reported valuation of over $80 billion. The AI industry is highly competitive, with major tech players like Google and Amazon investing heavily in AI research and development.
In summary, Google’s investment in Anthropic highlights the fierce competition in the AI industry. With substantial financial backing from Google and Amazon, Anthropic aims to push the boundaries of large language models and create AI products that are significantly more capable than existing offerings. While Anthropic’s valuation has risen considerably, it faces stiff competition from giants like OpenAI in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence.
Hi, I’m Oren, founder at BIGINTRO, a content strategy agency that helps B2B companies drive growth. We develop search, social, PR, and content marketing strategies tailored to business goals. I also have a dog named Milo.