/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23935560/acastro_STK103__03.jpg?w=696&resize=696,0&ssl=1 "Amazon will invest another billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic")
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Amazon announced today that it is pumping another $4 billion into Claude’s artificial intelligence developer Anthropic, bringing its total funding to $8 billion. This latest round follows $1.25 billion in September last year and another $2.75 billion in March.
Along with the money, Amazon wrote in its blog post that Amazon Web Services (AWS) will become Anthropic’s “primary training partner” and that rival OpenAI will exploit Trainium and Inferentia chips in future models.
The investment and deeper partnership are consistent with previous reports by the author Reuters that Claude will power Amazon’s novel Alexa voice assistant. The improved Alexa – whose release has been delayed – reportedly worked better with Claude than when using Amazon’s internal model. The enhanced Alexa feature is currently scheduled for release in 2025.
Amazon is at risk of falling further behind in the AI arms race compared to competitors like Microsoft and OpenAI. In the novel version of Alexa, Amazon promised a more conversational tone, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT voice mode – but some beta users reported snail-paced, choppy and unhelpful responses. Apparently he also has trouble turning on the lights.