The Competition and Markets Authority has begun a preliminary investigation into a partnership between Google and the AI startup Anthropic, marking the latest in a string of investigations into deals between big tech companies and smallerAI ones.

Google invested $2bn (about £1.56bn) into Anthropic in 2023, shortly after signing a cloud computing agreement with the startup, which develops the Claude LLM and chatbot.

The CMA is now considering whether the partnership has “resulted in the creation of a relevant merger situation” which would allow the agency to begin a formal investigation. It is inviting comments over the next two weeks.

The move comes amid broader concerns about competition in the generative AI sector. A deal between Amazon and Anthropic is also being investigated by the CMA as a potential merger after Amazon took a $4bn stake in the company and signed a deal to become one of the startup’s cloud computing providers.

Similar investigations have been launched by the CMA into OpenAI and Microsoft after the latter took a substantial stake in the ChatGPT maker’s for-profit arm, and into Microsoft and AI startup Inflection, after the tech giant hired the startup’s founder and leadership team alongside signing an access deal for the company’s AI models.

Another investigation into a deal between Microsoft and the French AI startup Mistral was dropped in May.

Regulators are concerned about the concentration of power in the hands of big tech, meaning that outright acquisitions are rarely attempted, particularly in competitive sectors such as AI. But the CMA is keeping a keen eye out for arrangements that may hamper competition in other ways.

An Anthropic spokesperson denied that the partnership was a merger. “We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” the company said.

A Google spokesperson said the company “is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world”.

They added: “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”