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.