Google invests up to $40B in Anthropic

Alphabet said on April 24 that Google will invest up to $40 billion in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup behind Claude. (reuters.com) The companies said Google is putting in $10 billion now, with another $30 billion available if Anthropic hits performance milestones. (cnbc.com) (bloomberg.com) Anthropic and Google already work together, but they also compete in the same race to sell large language models and developer tools. Google’s backing also gives Anthropic more access to Google Cloud and Tensor Processing Units, the company’s in-house AI chips. (reuters.com) (cnbc.com) The investment came days after Amazon said it would invest up to $25 billion more in Anthropic. That leaves Anthropic taking fresh backing from two of the cloud companies it relies on for computing power. (usatoday.com) (reuters.com) Google is making the Anthropic bet while pushing Gemini deeper into corporate software. On April 22, Merck said it would spend up to $1 billion with Google Cloud over multiple years to build what the companies called an “AI-enabled enterprise.” (merck.com) (reuters.com) Merck said Gemini Enterprise and Google Cloud tools will be used across research, manufacturing, commercial operations and corporate functions. The drugmaker said the goal is to improve productivity, data use and patient impact. (merck.com) (msd.com) That pairing shows Google pursuing two tracks at once: financing a leading model lab outside Google, and selling its own models and infrastructure inside large companies. Anthropic gets capital and compute; Google gets a bigger role in both the model race and enterprise adoption. (reuters.com) (merck.com) The next test is whether those commitments turn into durable revenue. Google has tied $30 billion of the Anthropic package to milestones, and Merck’s cloud agreement is spread across several years. (bloomberg.com) (reuters.com)