Anthropic is negotiating a multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal with Google, potentially enhancing its AI capabilities significantly.
Anthropic is currently in discussions with Google regarding a substantial deal that would provide the artificial intelligence company with additional computing power valued in the high tens of billions of dollars. This agreement, which remains in the preliminary stages, would see Google supplying Anthropic with cloud computing services.
As part of the arrangement, Anthropic would gain access to Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs), specialized chips designed to accelerate machine learning workloads. This information comes from a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the negotiations. Notably, Google has previously invested in Anthropic and has served as a cloud provider for the company.
The talks are still in their early phases, and the specifics of the deal may evolve as discussions progress. Following the news, Google’s shares saw an increase of up to 2.3% after the market opened in New York on Wednesday. In contrast, Amazon.com, another investor and cloud provider for Anthropic, experienced a decline of approximately 1.5%.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic is recognized for its Claude family of large language models, which compete directly with OpenAI’s GPT models. Recently, the company engaged in early funding discussions with Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX, shortly after completing a significant $13 billion funding round.
This funding round was co-led by prominent firms including Iconiq, Fidelity Management & Research Company, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Other notable investors included Altimeter, Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, Blackstone, Coatue, D1 Capital Partners, Insight Partners, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, as well as the Qatar Investment Authority.
Google has previously invested around $3 billion in Anthropic, which the company indicated would be used to enhance its capacity to meet growing enterprise demand and support its international expansion efforts.
Anthropic is projecting significant growth, with expectations to more than double, and potentially nearly triple, its annualized revenue run rate in the coming year. This growth is driven by the rapid adoption of its enterprise products. According to a report by Reuters, the company is on track to achieve an internal goal of reaching a $9 billion annual revenue run rate by the end of 2025.
Amazon, which competes with Google in the cloud services sector, has also invested billions in Anthropic and has provided computing resources to the company. However, Amazon’s cloud division, AWS, recently experienced a significant outage lasting 15 hours, which affected over 1,000 customers. This incident caused errors and latency across various cloud service endpoints, disrupting operations for companies such as Snapchat, United Airlines, and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
In response to the potential Anthropic-Google Cloud deal, Amazon’s stock fell by 1.6% in after-hours trading.
Source: Original article