Google’s AI Partnership With Anthropic Draws Regulatory Scrutiny in UK

Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) is facing scrutiny from U.K. regulators surrounding the tech giant’s partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog agency, said Tuesday it’s examining how the partnership between Alphabet and Anthropic could have effectively resulted in a merger situation that would negatively impact competition in the region.

Google’s Anthropic Deal Is Latest Big Tech AI Partnership To Draw Regulatory Attention

The news comes after a number of other partnerships between big tech companies and AI startups have attracted scrutiny from regulators in the U.K., the U.S., and the European Union.

Earlier this month, U.K. regulators opened an investigation into Microsoft’s (MSFT) hiring of former Inflection AI employees and related agreements. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also reportedly investigating Microsoft’s actions with Inflection AI to determine if they violated antitrust rules for M&A.

Microsoft’s ongoing partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI has drawn the attention of competition regulators as well.

Alphabet shares were little changed in intraday trading Tuesday following the news. The stock has gained about 21% since the start of the year.