Amazon on Friday, November 22, announced that it will invest an additional $4 billion in Anthropic, a startup operating in the space of the artificial intelligence industry.
The mentioned startup, based in San Francisco, has developed a Claude chatbot and artificial intelligence models. After Amazon, which is both an e-commerce giant and one of the largest players in the global technology sector, announced new investments, the total amount of external funds received by Anthropic from this company will reach the $8 billion mark. The specified e-commerce giant will retain its position as a minority investor in the startup.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will also become the main partner of Anthropic in the training and cloud technology sectors. As part of the appropriate interaction format, the developer of Claude will use AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips for the training and deployment of its largest artificial intelligence models.
Currently, Anthropic is on an active development trajectory. The chatbot developed by the startup is becoming more and more popular. The competitors of this digital product are ChatGPT from OpenAI and Gemini from Google.
Also, Anthropic is involved in the so-called arms race in the area of artificial intelligence. In this context, it is worth noting that there is a rapid increase in competition in the AI industry. To a large extent, the corresponding process is natural, since artificial intelligence is the most advanced technology of modernity, which has already demonstrated impressive capabilities and has huge potential. Futurological forecasts provide for the likelihood that over time AI will become a form of digital thinking that will surpass human consciousness in terms of cognitive abilities. It is worth noting separately that the relevant forecasts are assumptions and do not belong to the category of guaranteed scenarios. At the same time, artificial intelligence does have significant potential in terms of prospects for cognitive development. However, there is currently no final understanding of what form of existence AI will have at the peak of its evolution. At the same time, it is clear that artificial intelligence is an advanced technology with huge potential. AI can transform already established configurations of reality in the economic space, the social environment, and even the cultural plane.
OpenAI and technology giants such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are also taking part in the mentioned arms race. The corresponding efforts are aimed at keeping up with the technological and commercial dynamic of the artificial intelligence industry, which is developing very intensively.
According to preliminary forecasts, by 2032, the financial volume of the generative AI market will reach $1.3 trillion. The artificial intelligence industry is also expected to drive sales growth in sectors such as hardware, software, services, advertising, and gaming. It is expected that the corresponding impact will generate an increase in the mentioned indicator by more than 40% per year.
The share of generative artificial intelligence in total expenditures on information technology hardware, software, services, advertising, and gaming, by 2032, according to preliminary forecasts, will grow to 10-12%. It is worth noting that as of March of the current year, the corresponding figure was fixed at less than 1%. In this context, the training of artificial intelligence platforms will be an important factor. The relevant activity will initially encourage spending on servers and storage systems. Then, spending on cloud infrastructure is expected to grow. Also, according to preliminary forecasts, the large-scale introduction of artificial intelligence can accelerate the refresh cycle of personal computers and smartphones. In this context, it is worth noting that more compact AI models are being developed for edge devices, such as, for example, Google’s Gemini Nano.
New verticals can also emerge in areas of software and gaming, including specialized virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence, drug-discovery functional solutions, and virtual goods. As AI develops, new technological opportunities may arise.
It is also expected that the training market will demonstrate more intensive growth than interference and by 2032 may reach a financial volume of $470 billion. Moreover, experts predict an expansion in the use of semiconductor accelerators. The corresponding expectations are based on the confidence that there will be an increasing number of companies that ramp up investments in developing their own large language models.
There is also a possibility that in the short term, servers and storage systems may become the most prominent segments. The corresponding assumption is because companies are building out an artificial intelligence infrastructure to meet the increased computing requirements. Also, more and more firms are paying attention to the public cloud to deploy their generative AI workloads.
Moreover, computer vision and conversational artificial intelligence products are expected to become new categories for inferencing. According to preliminary forecasts, the relevant categories can accelerate the growth rate of the device market, the financial volume of which currently stands at $1 trillion. An artificial intelligence training infrastructure will be needed to run these heavy workloads.
Preliminary projections suggest that AI-related hardware could reach $640 billion by 2032. It is worth noting that in 2022 the corresponding figure was less than $40 billion.
The growing demand for generative artificial intelligence products could add about $318 billion in software spending by 2032. This indicator is 71% higher than the figure recorded in 2022.
It is worth noting that technology giants such as Microsoft and Amazon are actively investing in startups specializing in the development of generative artificial intelligence. It is also worth noting separately that the mentioned giants are working on elaborating their own generative AI.
PitchBook data shows that last year, investors pumped $29.1 billion into about 700 deals related to generative artificial intelligence. It is worth noting that this indicator is more than 260% higher than the figure recorded in 2022. Much of the investment in 2023 came from technology companies, not from venture capitalists or other institutions.
As part of the partnership announced on Friday between Amazon and Anthropic, AWS customers will get early access to the startup’s feature. In this case, it implies the ability for clients to fine-tune their own data on the Anthropic’s Claude. This is a unique benefit for AWS customers.
In March, Amazon’s investment in Anthropic was $2.75 billion. It is worth noting that these investments have become the largest external financial injections of the e-commerce giant in the entire history of its existence. Amazon announced its initial investment in developer Claude last September. At that time, the amount of financial injections was $1.25 billion.
It is worth noting that Amazon is not on the board of directors of Anthropic.
The announcement of additional investments was made a month after developer Claude announced an important milestone in the history of its existence. In this case, it means artificial intelligence agents that can use a computer to perform complex tasks the way a human would. The mentioned digital products allow Anthropic’s technology to interpret what’s on a computer screen, select buttons, enter text, navigate websites, and execute tasks through any software and real-time internet browsing. Amazon already has access to the relevant tool. Also, the first clients and beta testers in this case were Asana, Canva, and Notion.
In September, Anthropic presented Claude Enterprise. In this case, it means the biggest new product of a startup since the debut of its chatbot. Claude Enterprise is designed for use by companies that want to integrate artificial intelligence from Anthropic. Beta testers and early customers of this product included GitLab, Midjourney, North Highland Consulting, Sourcegraph, and Menlo Ventures. GitLab used Claude Enterprise to generate content and respond to requests for proposals in a more automated way.
The mentioned product allows customers to upload documents with a large context window – the equivalent of 100 30-minute sales conversations, 100,000 lines of code, or 15 full financial reports.
In June, the startup presented its more powerful artificial intelligence model called Claude 3.5 Sonnet. In May, Anthropic rolled out its Team Plan for smaller businesses.
Last year, Google committed to invest $2 billion in the developer of Claude. This technology giant also had taken a 10% stake in the startup’s alongside.
It is worth noting that during the period of active development of artificial intelligence and scaling up the practice of using AI, the issue of cybersecurity has become more relevant. Scammers also have access to relevant technologies. Leveraging artificial intelligence has made the activities of the mentioned criminals more sophisticated. To counteract the corresponding threat in the virtual space, personal awareness of users is important. For example, a query in an Internet search engine, such as how to know if my camera is hacked, will allow anyone to get information about signs of unauthorized access to the device. Digital literacy is an effective tool for countering cybercrime. Relevant knowledge should be updated periodically. Cybercriminals strive to use the most advanced technologies in their activities, which transform methods and algorithms. It is also worth noting that any technology can be applied both within the framework of constructive scenarios and to achieve destructive goals. Moreover, new methods of cybercriminals often face counteraction tools over time. At the same time, knowledge of the criminals’ methodology allows individuals to identify malicious or potentially malicious activity in the virtual space even before the consequences in the form of financial and other damage become irreversible.
