The UK antitrust agency approved the collaboration between Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) and Anthropic.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated on Tuesday that the collaboration between Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) and the artificial intelligence company Anthropic did not meet the criteria for a full investigation according to merger rules, and this deal will avoid further scrutiny. The regulatory agency stated that Alphabet Inc. Class C did not have a "substantial impact" on Anthropic due to this transaction. Last year, the agency began to carefully consider this partnership after Alphabet Inc. Class C, under Alphabet, promised to invest $2 billion in this startup company. Prior to the financing, Alphabet Inc. Class C also signed an important cloud business agreement with Anthropic. The CMA has been at the forefront of global regulatory authorities to ensure that tech giants' significant bets on the artificial intelligence industry do not distort the market or lead to the emergence of a few all-powerful companies. The agency expressed concern about the "interconnected network" of collaboration relationships and investments in the field of artificial intelligence. Although Amazon.com, Inc.'s $4 billion investment in Anthropic was approved in September, Microsoft Corporation's investment in OpenAI is still under CMA review. Following a relatively quick investigation, CMA also approved Microsoft Corporation's acquisition of Mistral and Inflection. This decision will come as a relief for the company, which is facing multiple antitrust cases in the US and Europe, including one that may force Alphabet Inc. Class C to sell its Chrome browser. The US Federal Trade Commission and the EU are also investigating various collaboration relationships. A spokesperson for Alphabet Inc. Class C did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the statement was released. Alphabet Inc. Class C previously stated that Anthropic can use multiple cloud providers for free and does not require exclusive technology rights.