The startup behind Claude, the rival to ChatGPT, receives a total of $8 billion in funding from Amazon. AWS will be its main partner for training and deployment.
Anthropic, the promising artificial intelligence startup known for developing the Claude model, has announced a new investment of $4 billion from Amazon. This funding adds to the $2.75 billion raised in March and the $1.25 billion in September 2023, bringing the total to $8 billion since the start of their collaboration.
In addition to this financial backing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been designated as the primary partner for training and deploying Anthropic’s AI models, solidifying a strategic alliance aimed at accelerating the development of next-generation artificial intelligence systems.
Technological collaboration with AWS and the use of Trainium chips
As part of this collaboration, Anthropic will use Amazon’s Trainium artificial intelligence chips to train and deploy its AI models. These accelerators, designed by Annapurna Labs (a division of AWS), allow for optimized performance for machine learning tasks.
The relationship between the two companies extends beyond hardware usage. Engineers from Anthropic work directly with Annapurna’s chip design team to maximize computational efficiency and develop low-level kernels that fully leverage Trainium hardware. This integrated approach of hardware and software seeks to optimize every phase of model training, from silicon to complete architecture.
Claude as a central infrastructure in Amazon Bedrock
Claude, Anthropic’s AI model, has become a key tool within the Amazon Bedrock platform, enabling businesses and organizations to safely and custom-tailor AI solutions. Currently, Claude is used by thousands of companies for critical tasks, including:
- Pfizer, which uses Claude to accelerate medical research and reduce operational costs.
- Intuit, which employs the model to explain complex tax calculations to millions of users during tax season.
- The European Parliament, which has implemented Claude to power “Archibot,” a search engine that analyzes multilingual official documents, reducing research times by 80%.
Thanks to Claude’s capabilities within Amazon Bedrock, clients can customize AI models for specific tasks while maintaining the security and privacy of their data within the AWS environment.
Impact on AI research and development
The strategic alliance between Anthropic and Amazon promises to boost the next generation of research and development in artificial intelligence. According to experts, the combination of Anthropic’s expertise in advanced AI systems and AWS’s infrastructure will establish a robust and secure platform capable of delivering innovative solutions to businesses of all sizes.
David Carrero, co-founder of Stackscale (Grupo Aire) and a cloud infrastructure expert, comments: “The magnitude of this investment and the technological integration between Amazon and Anthropic not only reflects the growing relevance of generative AI in the industry but also highlights the crucial role of advanced and specialized infrastructures like AWS in meeting the surging demand for computing. This marks a key step toward the democratization of AI in secure and highly customizable environments.”
Overcoming regulatory challenges and strengthening the AI ecosystem
The announcement of this investment comes after the recent approval of the agreement by the UK competition regulator, which concluded that the relationship between Amazon and Anthropic did not require further investigation under local merger laws.
Looking ahead, both companies aim not only to develop more advanced models but also to address challenges such as sustainability, data security, and regulatory compliance. With this alliance, Anthropic and Amazon position themselves as leaders in the development of ethical, efficient, and scalable artificial intelligence.