Collect Them All (AI Edition)
When I was a kid, I distinctly remember the phrase "collect them all" as a marketing slogan used to upsell toys and other collectables. As a completist, this always worked on me – honestly, still does. It also sure seems to work on Big Tech when it comes to AI.
With the news today that Microsoft and NVIDIA are now making investments in Anthropic – naturally alongside a pledge from Anthropic to spend at least $30B on Azure, because you can't have a tit without a tat – I'm honestly sort of at a loss for how to frame this. Everything is just so tangled and interwoven at this point. I mean, this is a company which owns 27% of OpenAI investing in their main rival. And, to be fair, it comes after OpenAI signed deals with all of Microsoft's main rivals in the cloud. So instead, I'll just assume from now on that all bets are off because all bets are on.
Still, I feel the need to list out some of this conflicted mess just for my own sanity and so I can keep referencing and checking it as I write about tangential topics. Really, it's just an expansion of a list I made in July when noting just how hedged Big Tech was now thanks to their massive investments in these AI companies.
This is just the latest such deal, but obviously won't be the last.
For "Other deals" I'll include companies where there's a relationship but a direct investment isn't involved (at least not known or not yet). I'll try to keep this updated...
Amazon
Investor in: Anthropic • Databricks • Hugging Face • Scale AI
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: OpenAI
AMD
Investor in: Cohere • Hugging Face • Scale AI • Thinking Machine Lab • World Labs
Investment from: OpenAI
Other deals:
Anthropic
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: Amazon • Google • Microsoft • NVIDIA
Other deals: Apple
Apple
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: Anthropic • Google • OpenAI
Cisco
Investor in: Anthropic • Cohere • CoreWeave • Mistral • Scale AI • Thinking Machine Lab
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: Microsoft
CoreWeave
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: Microsoft • NVIDIA
Other deals: OpenAI
Databricks
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: Amazon • Microsoft • NVIDIA • Salesforce
Other deals: Google
Google
Investor in: Anthropic • Hugging Face • Safe Superintelligence
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: Databricks • NVIDIA • OpenAI • Thinking Machine Lab
Hugging Face
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: Amazon • AMD • Google • IBM • Intel • NVIDIA • Salesforce
Other deals:
Intel
Investor in: Hugging Face
Investment from: NVIDIA • SoftBank • US Government
Other deals: Amazon • Google • Microsoft
Meta
Investor in: Databricks • Safe Superintelligence • Scale AI
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: Black Forest Labs • Midjourney • NVIDIA
Microsoft
Investor in: Anthropic • Databricks • Mistral • OpenAI
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: NVIDIA
Mistral
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: ASML • Cisco • IBM • Microsoft • NVIDIA • Salesforce • Samsung
Other deals:
NVIDIA
Investor in: Anthropic • Cohere • CoreWeave • Mistral • Perplexity • OpenAI • Safe Superintelligence • Scale AI • Thinking Machine Lab • xAI
Investment from: SoftBank (just exited)
Other deals: Literally everyone, except maybe Apple
OpenAI
Investor in: AMD
Investment from: Microsoft • NVIDIA • Oracle • SoftBank
Other deals: Almost everyone, except Anthropic, Meta, and xAI
Oracle
Investor in: Ampere • Cohere • OpenAI
Investment from: N/A
Other deals: NVIDIA • SoftBank
Salesforce
Investor in: Anthropic • Cohere • Databricks • Hugging Face • Mistral • World Labs
Investment from: N/A
Other deals:
Scale AI
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: Amazon • AMD • Cisco • Meta • NVIDIA
Deals with:
SoftBank
Investor in: Ampere • Intel • NVIDIA (just exited) • OpenAI
Investment from: N/A
Deals with: Oracle
xAI
Investor in: N/A
Investment from: AMD • NVIDIA
Deals with: Black Forest Labs • Microsoft • Oracle
So there you go, while NVIDIA is obviously out there like Thanos collecting Infinity Stones, others are more subtle in their strategic bets. Special shout-out to Cisco, which kept unexpectedly coming up as I was putting together the list.
It also sure feels like with this latest news we're mere weeks away from Google and/or Anthropic investing in OpenAI, completing the ouroboros. Apple?
Anyway, I'm off to play Clue. Or Pokemon.
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler