Amazon is reportedly making another billion-dollar investment in Claude maker Anthropic, with the condition of using AWS chips.
So reports The Information based on sources. It was already announced in September that Anthropic was looking for new billions. Several big tech companies have invested in the company – a total of $9.7 billion (9 billion euros) has been raised. Much of this, $4 billion, came from Amazon. How much may now be added is unknown.
From the earlier investment, Anthropic uses AWS as its primary cloud environment for developing foundation models. Any new billion-dollar investment could expand this partnership. Amazon would want Anthropic to deploy servers with AWS proprietary chips. These are likely to be Trainium, a cheaper alternative to Nvidia chips. Currently, Anthropic still prefers Amazon servers with Nvidia chips.
Amazon users will also get early access to Anthropic technology as part of the investment. This could be beneficial for Amazon’s continued AI positioning. There are rumors that Amazon is experiencing technical challenges with existing models and may switch to Anthropic’s models. For example, Amazon is looking for new ways to shape assistant Alexa’s brain on its way to becoming an AI agent.