AWS Completes Investment in Claude AI Maker Anthropic

Amazon Web Services has completed its promised $4 billion investment in generative AI company Anthropic.

Anthropic and AWS first inked the deal last September. As part of its terms, AWS would become a minority owner in Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot and family of AI foundational models. In return, Anthropic would use AWS' vast cloud infrastructure, as well as its AI-optimized line of Trainium processors, to support the development of its AI models.

AWS' initial investment in Anthropic amounted to $1.25 billion. This week, AWS made good on the remaining $2.75 billion.

"Generative AI is poised to be the most transformational technology of our time," said Swami Sivasubramanian, AWS' AI chief, in a prepared statement, "and we believe our strategic collaboration with Anthropic will further improve our customers' experiences, and look forward to what's next."

Anthropic has been on a fundraising spree over the past year. Besides AWS, other notable investors include Google, Salesforce, and VC firm Menlo Ventures, which collectively pushed Anthropic's total estimated value to $15 billion as of this February, according to The New York Times, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the matter.

At the time of AWS' first cash infusion, Anthropic was in the midst of developing and releasing Version 2 of its Claude model. Since then, it has released Claude 3, which comprises three separate models. The most advanced of these, dubbed Opus, was found to "outperform its peers on most of the common evaluation benchmarks for AI systems," according to Anthropic's own testing. (By "peers," it means both OpenAI's ChatGPT 4 and Google's Gemini Ultra models.)

The Claude 3 models are available on AWS' Bedrock service, which gives developers access to foundation models from AWS partners like Anthropic to build generative AI-powered apps. As part of its deal with AWS, Anthropic had promised to put future versions of its models in Bedrock, as well as to use the platform to give AWS customers early access to upcoming Claude features.

"Anthropic's visionary work with generative AI, most recently the introduction of its state-of-the art Claude 3 family of models, combined with Amazon's best-in-class infrastructure like AWS Trainium and managed services like Amazon Bedrock, further unlocks exciting opportunities for customers to quickly, securely, and responsibly innovate with generative AI," noted Sivasubramanian.

About the Author

Gladys Rama (@GladysRama3) is the editorial director of Converge360.

Featured

  • a glowing gaming controller, a digital tree structure, and an open book

    Report: Use of Game Engines Expands Beyond Gaming

    Game development technology is increasingly being utilized beyond its traditional gaming roots, according to the recently released annual "State of Game Development" report from development and DevOps solutions provider Perforce Software.

  • abstract representation of equity at the core of AI

    Why Equity Must Be a Core Part of the Conversation About AI

    AI is an immensely powerful tool that can provide customized support for students with diverse learning needs, tailoring educational experiences to meet student’s individual needs more effectively. However, significant disparities in AI access and digital literacy skills prevent many of these same students from fully leveraging its benefits.

  • Man wearing headset working on a computer

    Internet2: Network Routing Security and RPKI Adoption in Research and Education

    We ask James Deaton, vice president of network services, about Internet2's initiatives and leadership efforts to promote routing security and RPKI adoption in research and higher education networks.

  • network of transparent cloud icons, each containing a security symbol like a lock or shield

    Okta, OpenID Foundation Propose New Identity Security Standard

    Okta and the OpenID Foundation have announced the formation of the IPSIE Working Group — with the acronym standing for Interoperability Profiling for Secure Identity in the Enterprise — dedicated to a new identity security standard for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.