Britain's competition watchdog said on Thursday it had started an investigation into whether Amazon's partnership with Anthropic raised competition concerns in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, days after it began a similar probe on Alphabet's collaboration with the startup.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it now had until Oct. 4 for its so-called Phase 1 decision to either refer the partnership for a deeper probe or clear it of competition concerns.

"Our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others. Amazon does not have a seat on Anthropic's board, nor does it have any board observer rights," an Anthropic spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"We intend to cooperate with the CMA and provide them with a comprehensive understanding of Amazon's investment and our commercial collaboration."

Amazon did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.

Late in July, CMA launched a probe into Google parent Alphabet's partnership with Anthropic, which was co-founded by former OpenAI executives and siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei.

Antitrust regulators around the world have been increasingly concerned by multiple deals struck between smaller industry startups and big tech giants.

Regulators in the United States, European Union and Britain signed a joint statement in July promising to work together to safeguard fair competition in the industry.

  - Reuters