On 19 November 2024, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) closed its phase 1 investigation into the partnership between Alphabet (Google LLC) and Anthropic. The CMA found that the partnership did not qualify for further investigation under the merger provisions of Section 22 of the Enterprise Act 2002. The CMA determined that Google has not acquired material influence over Anthropic as a result of the partnership. It considered Google's commercial relationship with Anthropic through the partnership as a whole, focusing on the potential influence of Google at the shareholder and/or board level through being an important source of computing, funding, and distribution sources through Vertex AI. It also reviewed internal documents from both parties to establish whether Google could exercise material influence in other unspecified ways. Moreover, the CMA found that the UK turnover test for further investigation was not met because Anthropic's UK turnover did not exceed GBP 70 million in the UK.
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