Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) injects billions of computing power into AI competition, making Anthropic the "gold-eating beast". How will Amazon.com, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation respond?

According to informed sources, the artificial intelligence company Anthropic PBC is currently in negotiations with Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOGL.US) for a deal that would provide them with nearly billion-dollar worth of additional cloud computing services. The details of the plan have not been finalized yet, and due to confidentiality, the sources have not disclosed their names. Alphabet Inc. Class C, as an early investor in Anthropic and an existing cloud service provider, would further deepen their cooperation if the deal is reached. Both Anthropic and Alphabet Inc. Class C have declined to comment, and the negotiations are still in the early stages with potential adjustments to be made. This news has driven Alphabet Inc. Class C's stock price up by 1.77% after hours, while Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN.US), also an investor in Anthropic and a cloud service provider, saw its stock price drop by approximately 1.11%. Founded in 2021 by former OpenAI employees, Anthropic is based in San Francisco and competes with OpenAI's GPT model with its Claude series of large language models. As a significant player in the AI industry, Anthropic is supporting its technological development and market demand through large-scale financing. It is widely believed in the industry that continuous investment in research and development is necessary for AI progress and meeting user demands. Just a month after raising $13 billion, Anthropic engaged in early-stage financing discussions with the Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX. This round of financing, led by Iconiq Capital, Fidelity, and Lightspeed, nearly tripled the post-investment valuation of the company to $183 billion. The potential cooperation is expected to strengthen Alphabet Inc. Class C's position in the AI competition. If an agreement is reached, Alphabet Inc. Class C would have a stronger foothold in the cloud service competition with Amazon.com, Inc. AWS and Microsoft Corporation Azure. Alphabet Inc. Class C has already invested around $3 billion in Anthropic, including a $2 billion investment in 2023 and an additional $1 billion at the beginning of 2025. Amazon.com, Inc. has pledged to invest approximately $8 billion in Anthropic, as they are not only a major customer of Amazon.com, Inc.'s AWS cloud services but also a primary user of their custom AI chips. For Anthropic, having sufficient computing power support is crucial to achieving their aggressive growth goals. The company requires large-scale cloud resources to train and operate its AI models to meet the growing demands of enterprise customers.