Raising antitrust concerns
Then there’s the pure antitrust question — such a lock-in could bring scrutiny from regulators, who are already eyeing potential monopolies in the AI space. In fact, Amazon’s previous $4 billion investment did prompt an investigation by the UK’s Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA), but that was dropped within one month.
Similarly, Nvidia is under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). However, at least in the US, antitrust could be less of a concern in the very near future, with transition to the Trump regime in January.
Ultimately, said Ramsinghaney, the positive or negative impact of such an expanded Amazon-Anthropic partnership will depend on how the companies choose to structure their arrangement and how much they prioritize (or don’t) open standards, cross-platform support, and customer choice.
