LONDON (AP) 鈥 Britain鈥檚 competition watchdog said Thursday it's opening a formal investigation into Google鈥檚 partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has 鈥渟ufficient information鈥 to launch an initial probe after it earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
鈥淕oogle is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world," the company said. "Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don鈥檛 demand exclusive tech rights.鈥
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named .
Anthropic said it's cooperating with the regulator and will provide 鈥渢he complete picture about Google鈥檚 investment and our commercial collaboration."
鈥淲e are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,鈥 it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic's $4 billion with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft's deals with two other AI startups, and .
