Amazon has agreed to invest up to $25 billion in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic as part of an expanded cloud infrastructure deal. The agreement was announced on Monday.
The investment adds to the $8 billion Amazon had already committed to Anthropic in previous rounds. Amazon shares rose 3% in Tuesday pre-market trading.
Why it matters
The deal signals that Big Tech’s AI spending race is accelerating, not slowing. The sums involved now rival the GDP of small nations, and the commitments lock in infrastructure decisions that will shape cloud computing for a decade.
Deal structure
Amazon will invest $5 billion immediately at Anthropic’s latest valuation of $380 billion. Up to $20 billion more is available, tied to what the companies described as “certain commercial milestones.”
In return, Anthropic has committed to spending more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services infrastructure over the next 10 years. Anthropic said it plans to bring nearly 1 gigawatt of Trainium2 and Trainium3 chip capacity online by year-end.
Dual bets
The partnership comes just two months after Amazon agreed to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, Anthropic’s chief rival. Amazon is now the largest financial backer of both leading AI companies.
The strategy reflects a bet that demand for AI compute will be large enough to sustain multiple major players, rather than a winner-take-all outcome.
Scale of AI investment
According to industry estimates, the five largest US technology companies are on track to spend more than $300 billion on AI-related capital expenditure in 2026 alone. Amazon’s dual investments in Anthropic and OpenAI represent the most aggressive positioning in the sector.