Google commits to invest $2 billion in OpenAI competitor Anthropic
Google investing $2 Billion? : In a confirmed report by CNBC, it has been revealed that Google has entered a partnership with Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup, to the tune of up to $2 billion. This investment includes an initial $500 million infusion and an additional $1.5 billion to be invested gradually, according to an Anthropic spokesperson.
The Wall Street Journal also reported on the planned financing. When asked for comment, a Google spokesperson did not respond immediately. Anthropic, founded in 2021 by former executives of OpenAI, is the creator of Claude 2, a competing chatbot to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It has gained popularity among companies such as Slack, Notion, and Quora.
Additionally, Anthropic has received backing from notable firms such as Salesforce and Zoom, and was valued at $4.1 billion earlier this year. This exciting partnership with Google solidifies Anthropic’s position as a major player in the artificial intelligence industry.
Key Point : Google agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Anthropic, CNBC has confirmed. The commitment involves a $500 million upfront investment and an additional $1.5 billion to be invested over time, an Anthropic spokesperson told CNBC. Anthropic, the creator of the Claude 2 chatbot, was valued earlier this year at $4.1 billion.
Claude 2 boasts an impressive ability to summarize lengthy texts, with a capacity of up to 75,000 words, equivalent to the length of a typical book. This cutting-edge chatbot allows users to input large datasets and request summaries in a variety of formats, such as memos, letters, or stories. In comparison, ChatGPT has a more limited range, able to handle roughly 3,000 words.
According to research conducted by Arthur AI, a leading platform for monitoring machine learning, Claude 2 stands out as the most reliable chatbot in terms of “self-awareness.” In other words, it excels at accurately assessing its own knowledge and limitations, and will only respond to questions for which it has sufficient training data. Arthur AI put chatbots from Meta, Cohere, and OpenAI to the test, with Claude 2 emerging as the top performer.
In April, a significant event took place when Google made a bold move by investing a whopping $300 million in the company, thus acquiring a 10% stake. This major news caught the attention of many, including the White House. Anthropic, along with Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft, and OpenAI, were all invited to a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss responsible development of AI. Impressively, Anthropic wasted no time after the meeting and quickly secured an impressive $450 million in funding in May.
According to PitchBook data, this marked the largest funding round for an AI company since Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI in January. The company was undoubtedly making waves in the industry and gaining attention and support from major players in the tech world.
Anthropic was formed by Dario Amodei and his sister, Daniela Amodei, both pivotal figures in OpenAI’s research and leadership. Alongside other OpenAI alumni, they united to create Anthropic.
In a recent interview with CNBC, Amodei revealed that their latest chatbot had undergone extensive development, with a dedicated team of 30 to 35 individuals working directly on the AI model, and a total of 150 people providing support. The market for AI is expanding at such a rapid pace that there is ample opportunity for multiple players, like Anthropic, to thrive and excel.
“It’s a really unusual time from a business perspective because there’s just so much demand for large language models and really more demand than the industry can currently provide,” Amodei said at the time. “The landscape is just very wide, and there’s really quite a lot of room for many different users and types of users to make use of these systems.”