Google is investing more than $1 billion in AI startup Anthropic, which is known for its Claude language models. This investment is separate from a nearly $2 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which recently valued Anthropic at about $60 billion.
In 2023, Google invested $300 million in Anthropic, acquiring a 10% stake. Amazon has also shown interest, doubling its stake to $8 billion after leading a $4 billion fundraising effort for Anthropic.
Anthropic is a key competitor to OpenAI, with growing interest from major tech companies. Anthropic's CEO, Dario Amodei, expressed confidence in the development of powerful AI systems, predicting advancements that could surpass human capabilities within 2-3 years.
The company plans to release its Claude 3.5 Opus model soon, which has reportedly performed well in training.