Anthropic in talks with Google for multi-billion-dollar cloud deal
AI startup Anthropic PBC is in discussions with Alphabet’s Google about a potential deal that could provide the company with additional computing power valued in the high tens of billions of dollars, according to sources familiar with the matter, News.Az reports, citing Bloomberg.
The proposed arrangement would allow Anthropic to use Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) — chips custom-designed to accelerate machine learning workloads.
Google, a previous investor in Anthropic, would also provide cloud computing services as part of the deal. The discussions are in early stages, and terms could change. Both companies declined to comment.
Following the news, Google shares rose more than 3.5% in extended trading, while Amazon, another Anthropic investor and cloud provider, slipped about 2%.
Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic is known for its Claude family of large language models, which compete with OpenAI’s GPT models. The San Francisco-based startup has been raising massive funds to keep pace in the AI race, recently closing a $13 billion funding round led by Iconiq Capital and co-led by Fidelity and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which brought its valuation to $183 billion.
Previously, Google invested about $3 billion in Anthropic, including a $2 billion commitment in 2023 and another $1 billion earlier this year. Amazon has pledged around $8 billion and provides both cloud services and custom AI chips to support Anthropic’s operations.
This potential Google deal would further strengthen Anthropic’s computing capabilities as it competes to advance AI research and meet growing consumer demand.
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