LONDON — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into partnership with artificial intelligence startup . The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition. The CMA has until Dec.
19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation. “ is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “ is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.
” San Francisco-based was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in , which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about investment and our commercial collaboration.” “We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement. The U.
K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared.