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Amazon and Anthropic Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance Generative AI

Anthropic selects AWS as its primary cloud provider and will train and deploy its future foundation models on AWS Trainium and Inferentia chips, taking advantage of AWS’s high-performance, low-cost machine learning accelerators
Anthropic deepens commitment to AWS, making its future foundation models accessible to millions of developers and providing AWS customers early access to unique features for model customization, using their proprietary data, and fine-tuning capabilities, all through Amazon Bedrock

SEATTLE – Amazon and Anthropic, two industry giants, have announced a strategic alliance aimed at revolutionizing the domain of generative artificial intelligence (AI). The collaboration aims to fast-track the development of Anthropic’s upcoming foundation models and make them readily accessible to AWS customers.

Collaboration Highlights:
Infusion of AWS Technology: Anthropic will leverage AWS's Trainium and Inferentia chips to establish, train, and deploy its future foundation models. This collaboration ensures optimal price, performance, scale, and security, powered by AWS.

Primary Cloud Partnership: AWS will become Anthropic’s chief cloud provider for critical tasks such as safety research and the creation of future foundation models. The majority of Anthropic’s operations will be executed on AWS, tapping into its world-renowned cloud technologies.

Extended Access for AWS Customers: Anthropic commits to offering AWS customers global access to its next-gen foundation models via Amazon Bedrock. This platform is AWS’s proprietary service that guarantees safe access to top foundation models in the industry. Moreover, AWS customers will receive priority access to exclusive model customization and fine-tuning capabilities.

Amazon’s Investment: Amazon is set to invest a staggering $4 billion in Anthropic, subsequently securing a minority ownership in the firm.

Benefits for Amazon Developers: Through Amazon Bedrock, developers and engineers at Amazon can harness Anthropic's AI models. This integration allows the creation of innovative AI-powered applications and experiences across Amazon's diverse businesses.

Andy Jassy, Amazon's CEO, praised the potential of the partnership, "With Anthropic’s pioneering foundation models, we anticipate a sea change in both immediate and future customer experiences. The enthusiasm surrounding Amazon Bedrock and AWS Trainium signifies a promising era of collaboration and innovation."

Dario Amodei, Anthropic's CEO, expressed his eagerness, “Harnessing AWS's cutting-edge Trainium chips is monumental for our future foundation models. This expanded alliance signifies a transformative era for businesses as they integrate Anthropic’s advanced AI solutions with AWS's unrivaled cloud technologies.”

Anthropic's Journey
Having been an AWS client since 2021, Anthropic quickly established itself as a global frontrunner in providing foundation models. Their model, Claude, is renowned for its versatility, mastering tasks from complex dialogue generation to intricate reasoning, all while maintaining unparalleled reliability. Claude's industry-first 100,000-token context window can process vast information securely across myriad sectors.

AWS’s announcement further cements its dedication to advancing generative AI, continuing to offer state-of-the-art compute instances, a vast selection of foundation models via Amazon Bedrock, and other generative AI applications like Amazon CodeWhisperer.

As part of this deepened alliance, AWS and Anthropic are pooling significant resources to assist customers in leveraging Claude and its successor, Claude 2, on Amazon Bedrock. This initiative involves the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, where AI specialists assist businesses of all sizes in crafting generative AI-powered applications tailored for their unique needs.

Enterprises like Lonely Planet, Bridgewater Associates, and LexisNexis Legal & Professional are just a few who have tapped into this cutting-edge technology, revolutionizing their operations and services.

Commitment to Responsible AI
Both Amazon and Anthropic actively participate in several global organizations that advocate for the ethical development and deployment of AI technologies. In a recent move, both companies joined President Biden and other industry frontrunners at the White House, pledging their support for voluntary commitments that prioritize the safe and ethical evolution of AI. This commitment is a testament to their long-standing mission to ensure AI's safe and responsible growth.

In sum, this collaboration between Amazon and Anthropic promises not just advancements in AI, but a commitment to its ethical and responsible evolution. The tech industry, and indeed the world, waits with bated breath for the groundbreaking innovations that this partnership will undoubtedly bring to the fore.