While the enemy of your enemy might turn out to be your friend, what happens when two Cloud Wars Top 10 arch-rival companies simultaneously invest $6 billion into one of the world’s hottest AI companies in hopes of becoming the very best in its rapidly expanding stable of BFFs?
Welcome to the wild and wonderfully wide-open world of the burgeoning AI Ecosystem, where these types of multidimensional partnerships and ownership stakes might inspire a whole new product category for 23andMe.
In a huge win for AWS in the Cloud Wars, Amazon last week boosted its total commitment to Anthropic to $4 billion by following up its original $1.25 billion investment with another $2.75 billion. In return for that overall infusion of $4 billion, Anthropic has agreed that AWS will become Anthropic’s “primary cloud provider for mission-critical workloads, including safety research and future foundation model development.”
While that’s all great for AWS and Amazon, I believe they’re still playing catch-up with Google and Google Cloud in GenAI because of the depth and breadth of the AI and GenAI capabilities that Google and Google Cloud already had in place even before investing $2 billion into Anthropic late last year. That infusion was scheduled to come in two parts: $500 million upfront plus commitments for $1.5 billion down the road, according to cnbc.com.
I think Google made a very smart move by tying in with Anthropic, even though for a lesser amount than Amazon and without the “primary cloud provider” tag that AWS has earned. Google’s creating its own foundational model with Gemini, so perhaps Anthropic felt an enhanced relationship with Amazon and AWS would be less potentially risky and complicated than one with the Google team.
So as the GenAI Revolution brews up a big and vibrant and multilayered AI Ecosystem, we’re likely to see AI startups and Cloud Wars Top 10 companies engage in a staggeringly broad range of alliances as well as dalliances, partnerships as well as marriages of conveniences, investments as well as buyouts, and short-term hookups as well as permanent breakups.
The hot ticket today is unquestionably Anthropic, as spelled out in the details above. But if we were to go back in time just 12 months, I’d wager Anthropic had only 1% (or less?) of the brand recognition it has today. So with the stakes in the cloud-plus-AI wars spiking, none of us should be surprised to see other hottest-of-the-hot AI superstars emerge in breathtakingly rapid fashion.
Meanwhile, three other Cloud Wars Top 10 companies — two of which are the world’s largest enteprise-apps vendors — are pumping money into another red-hot AI firm: Cohere. Oracle, SAP, and Salesforce are all funding Cohere, although it appears the level of those combined investments are nowhere close to the $6 billion pumped into Anthropic by Amazon and Google.
My guess is that Oracle has invested about $100 million in Cohere, while Salesforce and SAP’s investments are closer to $50 million each. Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, who’s built a superb track record over the past few decades for finding and backing emergent high-flyers, has sung Cohere’s praises on the company’s last few earnings calls and could very possibly be looking to extend and/or tighten Oracle’s relationship with Cohere.
At the same time, just to keep things interesting, SAP has also invested significantly in Anthropic, probably in the range of $150 million to $200 million. SAP has committed to investing $1 billion across Anthropic, Cohere, and Alpha Aleph.
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Microsoft and OpenAI: Keeping It Monogamous
It’s a very different story over at OpenAI, where the company’s extensive partnership with Microsoft has resulted in investment commitments of more than $10 billion. While OpenAI has several high-profile individual investors, I believe that Microsoft is the only Cloud Wars Top 10 company that OpenAI has allowed to invest.
Final Thought
Revolutions are always messy and unpredictable, and as the upheaval unfolds, it’s not uncommon for unexpected alliances to take shape. So it is here in the early days of the GenAI Revolution as every Cloud Wars Top 10 company angles to align itself with high-potential AI companies to accelerate development and new opportunties for customers.
To help you stay abreast of all the developments and possibilities, we at Acceleration Economy have announced the AI Ecosystem Pioneers Dozen list, shown below. You can find out more about these remarkable developments here.
Register for Acceleration Economy’s Cloud Wars CEO Outlook 2024 Course, now available. Featuring exclusive interviews on strategy, AI, and customers with the CEOs of Cloud Wars Top 10 companies.
