Google Can Keep Anthropic AI Investment Under Antitrust Plan

(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc.’s Google can keep its existing investments in artificial intelligence startups like Anthropic, but would be required to notify antitrust enforcers before investing in any more AI companies under a revised Justice Department proposal filed Friday in the agency’s landmark antitrust case over search.

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In a court filing, antitrust enforcers said that barring Google from investments in AI could “cause unintended consequences in the evolving AI space.” The remainder of the Justice Department’s proposed remedy – including a forced sale of the Chrome web browser – is largely unchanged from November.

The government continues “to be concerned about Google’s potential to use its sizable capital to exercise influence in AI companies,” the Justice Department said, instead suggesting Google give notice on investments “to permit a review of proposed transactions.”

A federal judge ruled last year that Google illegally monopolized online search and search advertising markets. Judge Amit Mehta has scheduled a trial for next month to hear testimony on how to remedy the harm to the markets.

In a statement Friday, Google spokesman Peter Schottenfels said the department’s “sweeping proposals continue to go miles beyond the Court’s decision, and would harm America’s consumers, economy and national security.”

Under the Justice Department’s initial November proposal, Google would have to unwind its investments in companies including Anthropic, Bloomberg previously reported. The AI startup, which has about $3 billion in investment from Google along with funding from Amazon.com Inc., weighed in last month saying the proposal would harm competition in the nascent industry.

Google opposes many of the Justice Department’s proposals, calling them “extreme,” and has asked that it be able to continue sharing revenue with browsers or phone makers, but eliminating its exclusive access. Apple Inc., which receives as much as $20 billion a year in revenue from its contract with the search giant, has also opposed the Justice Department proposal.

(Updates with Google statement.)

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