Google's $3 Billion Investment in Anthropic Reveals Deep Ties in AI Race

Google has given Anthropic more funding than previously known, show new filings | TechCrunch

Anthropic, a San Francisco startup often cast as an independent player in the AI race, has deeper ties to Google than previously known. Court documents recently obtained by The New York Times reveal that Google owns a 14% stake in the company and is set to pour another $750 million into it this year through a convertible debt deal. In total, Google's investment in Anthropic now exceeds $3 billion. Despite having no voting rights, board seats, or direct control over the company, Google's backing raises questions about how independent Anthropic really is. As AI startups increasingly rely on funding from tech giants, regulators have scrutinized whether these deals give incumbents an unfair advantage, though the Justice Department just dropped a proposal that would have forced the sale of some of those stakes. Google, which is developing its own tech while quietly funding competitors, is clearly hedging its bets. Meanwhile, with Amazon also funneling money into Anthropic -- it has agreed to invest up to $8 billion so far in the outfit -- it's natural to wonder what such ties mean for Anthropic and other big AI startups. Are they still mavericks or becoming extensions of Big Tech?

Court documents show Google is heavily invested in AI startup Anthropic

Google has filled Android with 'recommendations' to the point they are now unbearable Summary Google owns 14% of AI startup Anthropic, according to court filings found by The New York Times. Google's investment in Anthropic shows its continued involvement in AI startups. Some AI startups, like Anthropic and DeepSeek AI, are gaining market credibility and impacting big players. Among the bigger names in the world of Big Tech, Google reigns supreme in almost all ways globally. It has a laundry list of products on both the hardware and software side, with Google I/O 2025 set to showcase some of its latest innovations with Android 16, Android XR, and, of course, Gemini. Artificial intelligence became the public focus of Google's product synergy just over a year ago, and Gemini has a lot of useful features across the entire landscape of Google's app library (some of which we didn't realize until recently). For Google to continue running the AI gauntlet at the highest level its executives can dictate, it has invested in many startup AI companies, but it's typically kept its involvement in said startups quiet. You can't fool cold hard courts, though. Related 5 reasons why Google will dominate the AI arms race with solutions like Gemini and NotebookLM Google is well-positioned to win with its AI Posts 6 First reported on by The New York Times, court filings show that Google's investment in Anthropic has grown to it owning 14% of the company (via The Verge). Within those legal filings, it also reveals that Google legally cannot own more than 15% of the startup and has no voting rights on company decisions. Additionally, Google cannot place anyone on the Anthropic board and has no observer rights. Financial Times reported in January that Google had invested $3 billion in the company already (Amazon had already invested $8 billion by that point). The NYT report shows that Google plans to invest another $750 million in September with what is called a convertible debt loan, something that was agreed upon in 2023. The AI startup world Source: Mockup Photos While the big players like Google and OpenAI are constantly in the midst of battling for AI user base supremacy, other AI startups are starting to steal some of the limelight. Anthropic was launched after 11 former OpenAI employees left the company in 2021, and its chatbot, Claude, has seen a lot of positive feedback. As previously mentioned, it has received billions of dollars in investments from much-larger companies, leading to its market credibility. There are other less-used AI chatbots and assistants, such as Mistral, You.com, and Chatsonic. You can't forget about other big names in the tech world, too, such as Microsoft with Copilot and Apple with Apple Intelligence. On second thought, let's forget about Apple Intelligence. Perhaps there is no better AI startup to talk about than DeepSeek AI, which desperately upset the status quo globally by sharply reducing the cost to train its LLM versus the big names' products in Gemini and ChatGPT. It's practically just as advanced for a fraction of the cost, and in response, the Nasdaq index lost $1 trillion in market capitalization in the days that followed. Nvidia lost almost $600 billion. DeepSeek AI does a lot of things better than Gemini does, which is extremely impressive and spotlights a small amount of doubt about Google's potential AI arms race domination.

Inside Google's investment in the AI startup Anthropic

To win the artificial intelligence race, Google not only has developed its own technologies, but has also pumped money into prominent AI startups. And to preserve its competitive edge, Google has kept its ownership stakes in those startups a secret. Google owns 14% of Anthropic, according to legal filings that the AI startup submitted as part of a Google antitrust case. But that investment gives Google little control over the company. The internet giant can own only up to 15% of Anthropic, according to the filings, and Google holds no voting rights, no board seats and no board observer rights at the startup. Still, Google is set to invest an additional $750 million in Anthropic in September through a type of loan known as convertible debt, according to the filings. The companies agreed to the convertible note in 2023. In total, Google has invested more than $3 billion in the AI company. The filings offer a rare glimpse into a big tech company's investment in an AI startup. Such investments have been under scrutiny by regulators, who questioned whether the deals gave incumbents an unfair advantage in the rapidly evolving and powerful technology. Apart from Google, Amazon and Microsoft have also invested in high-profile AI startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot. "A big company like Google knows that there is a race to AI, and it has a big enough cash pile that it can bet on multiple horses," said Chris V. Nicholson, an investor with the venture capital firm Page One Ventures who focuses on AI technologies. Anthropic's filings emerged in a landmark Google antitrust case over online search. In August, a federal court found that Google had acted as a monopolist in internet search, violating the law. To remedy the situation, the Justice Department, which brought the case against Google, had proposed that the court force the Silicon Valley company to sell any AI products that could compete with search. That could have included Google's stake in Anthropic. On Friday, the Justice Department pulled back on that proposal, arguing that Google should be required to notify government officials only before it makes investments in AI.