Alphabet Inc.’s Google has deepened its commitment to artificial intelligence (AI) by investing an additional $1 billion in Anthropic, a leading AI startup and a major competitor to OpenAI.
This is according to a report by Financial Times.
Google’s decision to deepen its commitment to Anthropic is a strategic effort to bolster its position in the competitive AI sector.
Google’s latest billion-dollar deal with Anthropic follows a $2 billion investment into the start-up in 2023, which included a $500m cash infusion and an additional $1.5 billion over time.
Anthropic’s is also in talks to raise $2 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which reportedly values the company at approximately $60 billion.
Google and Amazon’s existing stakes
Google’s latest financial commitment brings its total stake in Anthropic to around $3 billion meanwhile, Amazon has also significantly increased its stake in Anthropic, doubling its investment to $8 billion in November 2024.
- Anthropic’s annualized revenue currently stands at approximately $875 million, driven by its business model of selling access to its advanced AI models directly and through third-party cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services.
- Google’s increased financial commitment to Anthropic highlights the escalating competition among tech giants to secure dominance in AI.
Anthropic is a prominent player in the AI foundation model space, competing with OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft. OpenAI gained widespread attention with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, sparking an AI arms race among tech giants.
AI-powered healthcare
Alphabet Inc.’s subsidiary, Isomorphic Labs, is set to begin clinical trials of its first AI-designed drug by the end of 2025. This is a significant advancement in pharmaceutical development, as major tech companies invest heavily in AI-powered healthcare solutions.
- Sir Demis Hassabis, Isomorphic Labs founder which was spun out from Google DeepMind in 2021 in an interview with the Financial Times at the World Economic Forum said it is targeting major disease areas such as oncology, cardiovascular conditions, and neurodegeneration
“We’re looking at oncology, cardiovascular, neurodegeneration, all the big disease areas, and I think by the end of this year, we’ll have our first drug.”
- According to founder Demis Hassabis, the company has already secured partnerships with Eli Lilly and Co. and Novartis AG for six drug development programs.
- Hassabis highlighted the potential of AI in revolutionizing drug discovery, emphasizing the transformative impact AI could have on the healthcare sector
“It usually takes an average of five to 10 years to discover one drug. And maybe we could accelerate that 10 times, which would be an incredible revolution in human health,” he said.
Oracle Corp also unveiled plans for an AI-driven cancer vaccine system capable of delivering personalized treatments.
