Amazon has joined the ranks of Google and Microsoft with its latest investment in artificial intelligence. The e-commerce giant committed $4 billion to the AI startup firm Anthropic, giving it minority ownership in the company.

Why it matters: This investment marks a major shift for Amazon as it looks to become a forerunner in the generative AI space. It also gives Anthropic momentum as the small startup attempts to compete with OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. In this strategic collaboration, Anthropic has also selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its primary cloud provider. Anthropic also plans to give its customers first access to select features for model customization and greater fine-tuning capabilities.

• Amazon has been diligently working to catch up with Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI and Google. The company’s investment in Anthropic is a significant step in the right direction.

• AWS customers who wish to build on Anthropic’s AI models will have the option to do so with Amazon Bedrock. This is a service that allows users to construct generative AI applications in the cloud through existing models instead of having to train their own.

• As part of the agreement, Amazon will also become Anthropic’s source for custom chips for use in training and deploying its unique AI systems. This partnership will give the e-commerce giant a leg in the race against Nvidia.

Go Deeper —> Amazon to invest up to $4 billion in Anthropic, a rival to ChatGPT developer OpenAI – CNBC