"Anti-monopoly" iron fist strikes again! Britain reviews Amazon's (AMZN.US) $4 billion investment in Anthropic

Days after the UK competition regulator said it was investigating Google's (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) partnership with AI startup Anthropic, it is now investigating Amazon (AMZN.US).

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it is investigating whether Amazon's partnership with Anthropic could significantly weaken competition in the UK market.

The CMA said it had notified Amazon and Anthropic that it had "sufficient information" to start a first stage investigation. The CMA's decision to move to a second stage investigation is due by October 4.

A spokesperson for Amazon said it was "disappointed" that the CMA had not yet concluded its investigation.

A spokesperson for Amazon said: "Amazon's partnership with Anthropic does not raise any competition concerns and does not meet the CMA's own thresholds for scrutiny. Building AI models is expensive and companies like Anthropic need significant funding to train these models. By investing in Anthropic, Amazon and other companies are helping Anthropic expand the choice and competition of this important technology."

Amazon announced in March that it would invest an additional $2.75bn in Anthropic, bringing its total investment to $4bn.

The investment gave Amazon a minority stake in Anthropic but no board seat.

Anthropic is now valued at $18.4bn, according to reports, and has been backed by technology companies including Google and Salesforce (CRM.US).