This picture taken on July 4, 2022 shows the logo of Amazon, a major online shopping company, displayed at Amazon Amagasaki Fulfillent Center in Amagasaki, Hyogo prefecture.
Online retailer Amazon on Monday announced plans to spend up to $4 billion on artificial intelligence company Anthropic and acquire a minority stake in the business.
The action highlights Amazon's aggressive AI drive as it tries to keep up with competitors like Microsoft plus Alphabet's Google, according to CNBC.
Former OpenAI research leaders founded Anthropic about two years ago, and it recently unveiled Claude 2, a new AI chatbot.
Amazon is attempting to cash in on the buzz and potential of so-called generative AI, which includes innovations like ChatGPT from OpenAI and Claude chatbots from Anthropic.
The startup has chosen Amazon Web Services as its primary cloud provider as part of the two companies' announcement on Monday that they are creating a strategic partnership to enhance generative AI.
According to Anthropic, AWS users will have early access to special tools that enable model customization and fine-tuning.
Additionally, Anthropic will train the fundamental models that form the basis of its AI applications on semiconductors specifically created by AWS.
Foundation models are sizable AI programs trained on enormous quantities of data to enable them to be customized to handle various jobs.
Nvidia is the chip company that has benefited the most from the generative AI boom this year. A graphics processing unit is a class of semiconductors that is the main offering from Nvidia and can be used to train sizable AI models. Nvidia's stock increased by more than 200 percent at one point as the business exceeded financial projections for the growing adoption of AI.
Amazon's partnership with Anthropic partially attempts to demonstrate that other chips can be applied to AI applications.
Through Amazon Bedrock, a service that enables customers to create generative AI applications in the cloud using pre-existing models rather than training their own models, AWS clients will be able to build on Anthropic's AI models.
Read also: Amazon Plans to Hire 250,000 More Workers, Increase Wages Ahead of Year-end Holiday Rush
Amazon Aims to Be An All-In-One Resource for AI
Amazon wants to establish itself as an all-in-one resource for AI. The e-commerce behemoth develops its own processors for massive AI model training.
Customers of Amazon Bedrock can create unique generative AI applications utilizing pre-existing models, all of which are hosted on the Amazon cloud. The business also offers its own AI software for sale.
Anthropic already has a number of well-known investors, such as Google and Salesforce Ventures. This backing comes at a time when major tech corporations still place enormous bets on AI startups, a trend triggered by Microsoft's multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI. This company made the ChatGPT in January.
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