Amazon.com, Inc. and Microsoft Corp. released statements on Wednesday regarding the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) launch of investigations into the tech giants' deals with Anthtopic, Mistral AI, and Inflection AI.
Amazon insisted that a probe into this type of partnership with Anthropic is "unprecedented," as "unlike partnerships between other AI startups and large technology companies, our collaboration with Anthropic includes a limited investment, and doesn't give Amazon a board director or observer role." Meanwhile, Microsoft said it is confident that "common business practices such as the hiring of talent or making a fractional investment in an AI start-up promote competition and are not the same as a merger," adding that it will provide the agency with the required information.
Previously, CMA said that it wanted to determine whether or not the deals could potentially hurt market competition.
