Search engine giant Google has just made a major investment worth $2 billion in Anthropic, putting it head to head against its biggest rival, OpenAI.

It seems both artificial intelligence companies are now enjoying the benefits of leading the AI industry with massive investments from tech giants. Microsoft had invested massively into OpenAI’s ChatGPT at the start of this year, though it was a much bigger sum valued at $10 billion.

On the other hand, Amazon has also committed a $4 billion investment in Anthropic, so the financing gap between the two companies is likely more of a theoretical concern than a practical one.

Going back to Google’s investment, sources familiar with the matter, cited by The Wall Street Journal have reported that the funding arrangement entails an immediate injection of $500 million, with the possibility of an additional $1.5 billion in the future. The specific timing and any related conditions for this additional investment remain uncertain at this point.

Anthropic is yet to respond publicly on the matter.

This latest investment by Google makes it clearer than ever that the proxy war between AI and tech companies is starting to heat up. Google may not be able to hold its own against OpenAI’s lead in the market, but it’s hoping to take a slice of it by making investments in the right places.

Moreover, these companies realize that AI is going to become a crucial part of the technology landscape in the future, which is why they are all betting on large language models to make a transformative impact on their business. Therefore, it becomes evident that having at least partial ownership of these industry leaders is of utmost importance.

These investments extend beyond mere financial backing. Constructing the necessary infrastructure for the development and deployment of these AI models at the scale required for profitable operations would be an equally formidable undertaking for AI startups. Even calling them mere “startups” feels like quite an understatement. Consequently, these deals also encompass provisions for computing resources and mutual support.

As it stands, it remains to be seen how Anthropic’s rivals are going to respond to this development.