Google and Amazon See Huge Returns from AI Investment
Google’s parent company Alphabet and Amazon have both enjoyed significant financial gains from their investment in the AI startup Anthropic. This boost was reflected in their third-quarter profits, announced this week.
Alphabet reported net gains of $10.7 billion from equity securities, with the Claude chatbot, developed by Anthropic, contributing notably to these figures. Meanwhile, Amazon’s profits surged by 38%, aided by an impressive $9.5 billion pretax gain from their investment in Anthropic, which was categorized as non-operating income.
Investment Details
Google has put in around $3 billion into Anthropic, with $2 billion invested in 2023 and $1 billion from earlier this year. Recently, Google Cloud signed a deal to supply Anthropic with one million specialized AI chips starting in 2026, indicating a significant expansion in computing capacity worth potentially tens of billions of dollars.
On the other hand, Amazon is backing Anthropic with an $8 billion investment while constructing a network of data centers and custom AI chips as part of its Project Rainier. Amazon confirmed that this infrastructure is already up and running.
This isn’t the first time Alphabet’s profits have been influenced by changes in investment values. Back in April, the company reported an $8 billion rise in profits due to unrealized gains tied to a private firm, identified as SpaceX.
Investments in private generative AI firms are starting to show up in public companies’ financial reports. What were once viewed as long-term bets are now generating substantial unrealized profits. Anthropic’s recent funding valued it at $183 billion, prompting investment firms to reassess their holdings without actually selling any shares.
In contrast, Microsoft reported a drop in net income of $3.1 billion due to losses related to OpenAI, wherein the company has invested $13.75 billion and holds a 27% stake.
The evolving landscape of AI investments is clearly impacting financial performance across major tech companies.
