Amazon prepares a new multi-billion investment in Anthropic: the scenario shifts between convertibles, cloud, and the AI race

The Financial Times scoop shakes the market: Amazon ready to strengthen its partnership with Anthropic through another billion-dollar round

In the early hours of July 9, 2025, the Financial Times broke a scoop destined to make waves: Amazon is reportedly preparing to further increase its stake in Anthropic, the San Francisco-based AI startup behind the Claude models. According to sources close to the matter, negotiations are underway for a new round of multi-billion-dollar convertible notes that would add to the more than $8 billion already committed by Amazon since 2023. The immediate effect of this operation would be to further solidify Amazon’s position as Anthropic’s key industrial partner and technology provider, while keeping its equity stake below the 33% antitrust threshold.

From the initial entry to mega AI infrastructures: how the strategic relationship between Amazon and Anthropic has evolved

The collaboration between the two companies officially began in September 2023 with an initial ticket of $1.25 billion. A few months later, in November 2024, came the real scale-up: Amazon signed a $4 billion convertible (later fully exercised), bringing the total commitment to $8 billion and securing exclusive use of AWS for training and deploying Claude models. The year 2025 marks a new phase: with the launch of “Project Rainier,” a 2.2 gigawatt AI data center powered by proprietary Trainium 2 chips, Amazon offers Anthropic the opportunity to scale up generative models rapidly while maintaining full infrastructure control. This new round would bring the total invested to over $10 billion, making the partnership one of the most ambitious ever seen in generative AI.

Valuations, deal structure, and lock-in logic: the role of convertible notes and the new Anthropic numbers

According to the FT, the new round would be structured as convertible notes valuing Anthropic at around $61.5 billion post-money, maintaining Amazon’s ability to convert its position into ordinary equity over the medium term. Meanwhile, Anthropic is experiencing explosive growth: annualized revenues exceed $4 billion thanks to the adoption of Claude models on AWS Bedrock, Slack, Zoom, and Notion, with year-over-year growth of more than 300%. Amazon’s strategy aims at a technological “lock-in”: increasing Anthropic’s reliance on AWS infrastructure and Trainium chips, reducing dependence on external suppliers like Nvidia for computing power.

The challenge to Microsoft-OpenAI and the global race for leadership in generative models

If finalized, this new investment would strengthen Amazon’s position as the main alternative to the Microsoft-OpenAI alliance in the field of next-generation language models. On one hand, it would allow Anthropic to accelerate development of future Claude generations, backed by AWS infrastructure and priority access to new chips. On the other, it would consolidate Amazon’s supremacy among the leading cloud hyperscalers, even as Google remains a minority shareholder and provides TPUs, but cannot secure exclusive rights to Anthropic’s models. In the background, AWS’s AI business is growing rapidly, with a semiannual run-rate exceeding $3.5 billion, and Amazon’s clear objective is to curb the advance of Microsoft-Azure solutions and Gemini on Google Cloud.

Regulatory risks, internal competition, and the talent crunch: what could slow down the deal

There is no shortage of obstacles and risks. U.S. antitrust authorities, led by the FTC, have been monitoring big tech–AI startup partnerships for months and launched a broad inquiry (6(b) report, January 2025) into such deals. A further increase in Amazon’s economic stake in Anthropic could raise concerns about competition and the risk of creating a de facto duopoly in generative AI supply. Furthermore, Amazon continues to develop proprietary models such as Aquila and Titan, potential direct competitors to the Claude models, while the AI talent market remains extremely competitive, with recruitment costs for senior researchers soaring.

According to sources, the new round is expected to close by the end of summer 2025, so that Amazon can showcase a unified and strengthened AI portfolio at re:Invent. The outcome of this deal will define Amazon’s strategic position in the global AI race, determining whether the company will be able to compete effectively with Microsoft, Google, and emerging new players in the next wave of generative innovation.

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