The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) cleared a $4 billion investment by Microsoft into AI start-up Anthropic after concluding it did not merit deeper investigation.

A phase one initial review launched in August is the end-result of the antitrust regulator gathering information and comments about Amazon’s investment.

Amazon made two separate investments into Anthropic, giving it a minority stake in the generative AI company.

The CMA found Anthropic’s UK revenue did not exceed £70 million, or account for a 25 per cent share or more of the market. As a result, it does not “believe that it is, or may be, the case that a relevant merger situation has been created”, it stated.

An Amazon representative told Mobile World Live it welcomes the CMA’s decision “acknowledging its lack of jurisdiction regarding this collaboration”.

“By investing in Anthropic, we’re helping to spur entry and competition in generative AI,” Amazon stated.

The CMA is examining the impact of companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon making large investments into AI start-ups, but so far has not found the deals fall within merger rules in the UK or raise competition concerns.

It cleared a partnership between Microsoft and Inflection AI and opted not to investigate its multi-year partnership with French start-up Mistral.

Amazon still faces an informal inquiry by the US Federal Trade Commission into its hiring of senior executives from start-up Adept AI Labs.