Microsoft on Tuesday announced a sweeping cloud infrastructure partnership with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic and chipmaker Nvidia, marking a significant realignment in the technology giant’s AI alliances as it moves further away from exclusive dependence on OpenAI, AP reported.Anthropic, the developer of rival chatbot Claude, said it will commit to purchasing $30 billion worth of computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform under the new agreement. As part of the same partnership, Nvidia will invest up to $10 billion in Anthropic, while Microsoft will invest up to $5 billion in the San Francisco-based company.The joint announcement from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was made just before the opening of Microsoft’s annual Ignite developer conference.Microsoft had long served as OpenAI’s exclusive cloud provider, but that arrangement began to shift earlier this year. While the two companies continue to collaborate, OpenAI has expanded its cloud strategy by striking major deals with Oracle, SoftBank and other chipmakers and data-centre operators to secure additional computing capacity.The latest move strengthens Microsoft’s position in the rapidly intensifying AI infrastructure race and gives Anthropic access to one of the world’s largest cloud ecosystems as competition with OpenAI accelerates.
