Amazon is investing up to $4 billion in the AI startup Anthropic

Amazon is investing up to $4 billion in the AI startup Anthropic, with the exchange of a minority ownership stake and a greater use of Amazon Web Services (AWS), the e-commerce giant's cloud computing platform.

The deepening partnership between these two companies demonstrates how major technology firms with significant cloud computing resources are leveraging their assets to gain a stronger foothold in the field of AI.

As part of the deal, AWS will become the "primary" cloud provider for Anthropic, with the AI company using Amazon's cloud platform for the "majority" of AI model development and AI security research, according to the companies. This will include the use of Amazon's own AI-designed chips.

Anthropic has also made a "long-term commitment" to offer its AI models to AWS customers, promising early access to AWS users for features such as the ability to customize Anthropic models for specific use cases.

"With today's announcement, customers will gain early access to features for customizing Anthropic models, using their proprietary data to create their own personalized models, and leveraging fine-tuning capabilities through self-service features," Amazon said in a release.

Anthropic has already been offering its models to AWS users through Amazon Bedrock, Amazon's all-in-one store for AI products. Bedrock also provides access to models from other providers, including Stability AI and AI21 Labs, along with proprietary models developed by Amazon itself.

In a release, Anthropic stated that Amazon's minority stake would not alter its corporate governance structure or its commitment to responsible AI development. "We will conduct pre-launch testing of new models to help us manage the increasingly capable AI system's risks," Anthropic said.

Both Amazon and Anthropic have made commitments to the Biden administration this year to undergo external audits of their AI systems before releasing them to the public.