Generative AI: Amazon invests $4 billion in Anthropic

Amazon is committed to investing up to $4 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic. As part of this partnership, Amazon Web Services (AWS) will be the main cloud platform for Anthropic’s workloads, which include the development of foundation models, and it is expected that the startup will run the majority of its workloads on AWS.

Anthropic has been a customer of the cloud provider since 2021 and made its Claude base model available on AWS in April.

Anthropic will also use AWS’ Trainium and Inferentia chips to train and deploy its future foundation models and will participate in the future development of chip technology.

Claude 2 can be used to perform complex reasoning and the production of creative content

In addition, future iterations of the AI startup’s core models will be made available to AWS global customers via Amazon Bedrock, a managed service that provides access to AI models using an API.

AWS customers will get early access to tools that allow them to customize and refine Anthropic’s AI models, including Claude, using their own data to create private AI models.

Amazon developers and engineers, through Bedrock, can also build Anthropic models to integrate generative AI capabilities into their work.

According to Anthropic, Claude 2 can be used to perform a series of tasks, including complex reasoning and the production of creative content. The company adds that the AI platform can process large volumes of data, such as technical and industry documents, for use cases in the fields of finance, law and coding, among others.

Amazon intensifies its rivalry with other giants such as Microsoft, Google and Nvidia in the field of AI

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, said on Monday that Claude had seen “significant organic adoption” among AWS customers since the AI model was added to Amazon Bedrock. Expanding its collaboration will create new opportunities to boost deployment, Amodei said.

He noted that LexisNexis Legal & Professional is currently using a custom Claude 2 template to power its Lexis+ AI application, which facilitates conversational research, summary and legal writing. Lonely Planet is also a client of Claude 2, which uses the AI model to provide travel recommendations.

By investing up to $4 billion, Amazon said it would take a minority stake in Anthropic, but gave no specifics on what exactly that entailed.

Nigel Green, managing director of the financial consulting firm deVere Group, commented on the announcement stating that this initiative highlights the growing interest of investors and technological investments in AI, Amazon intensifying its rivalry with other giants such as Microsoft, Google and Nvidia in the field of AI.

“The AI race is on, with major technology companies fighting to take the lead in the development, deployment and use of AI technologies,” Mr Green said in a statement. “AI will reshape entire industries and fuel innovation. That is why it is crucial for investors to pay attention to it and that is why almost all investors need exposure to AI investments in their portfolios.”

Source: “ZDNet.com “