The UK’s competition regulator is once again launching an investigation into partnerships between Big Tech companies and startups, in a sign that such deals – worth billions of pounds – will continue to be scrutinised.
This week, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation looking at investments made by Google parent company Alphabet into Anthropic, a prominent US-based AI research company founded by former employees of ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
In 2023, Alphabet invested around £1.56bn in Anthropic. The competition regulator argued the relationship between the companies may constitute a merger resulting in weakened competition in the AI market.
The move is the latest signal that such deals remain firmly in the crosshairs of the CMA. It comes just months after the CMA launched an investigation into Amazon’s relationship with Anthropic on the same grounds. Amazon has invested around $4bn into the company....