Anthropic: Why Google, Amazon and Microsoft Are Tech Industry Frenemies

New filings show that Anthropic is depending more and more on Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to sell its artificial intelligence (AI) technology to customers.

According to Anthropic's IPO registration document, released on Monday, sales through the cloud marketplaces of these three giant cloud service providers made up 48% of Anthropic's total revenue in the first half of 2026. In 2023, they accounted for just 11%.

These cloud providers collect payments from customers and then send the money to Anthropic after taking their fees. In the first half of this year, Anthropic paid $2.7 billion more in fees to its sales partners than it did during the same period last year. These partners include the three cloud providers.

This business model has helped Anthropic grow quickly. The company's sales reached $115.55 billion in the second quarter, and it reported an operating profit of $974 million.

Anthropic's planned stock market listing will be an important test of how public market investors feel about the AI industry. Investors now seem more concerned about the high cost of building the large computer systems needed to run AI.

Earlier this month, reports said Anthropic's revenue was growing more slowly in the third quarter. This added to a wider sell-off in technology stocks, as investors worried that spending on AI might be growing faster than real customer demand.

Anthropic also clearly warned about these risks in its S-1 filing, the document companies submit when preparing to go public. It said these cloud providers play four roles at once: "investors, customers, distribution partners and competitors." Anthropic also warned that these providers "are able to access our pricing and business terms."

The document also said that these cloud companies might give their own AI models more attention when promoting products. Anthropic's close ties to these companies have also caught the attention of antitrust regulators, and the company may face more checks in the future.

The "Circular Deal" Model

Anthropic has faced criticism over what the technology industry calls "circular deals." In these deals, the same companies that put money into Anthropic also earn money from doing business with it.

Anthropic is a major customer of Amazon Web Services (AWS). It uses Amazon's data centers and chips to train and run its Claude AI model. Amazon then offers Claude to its own customers through its Bedrock platform.

In the same way, Anthropic uses Google's custom-made AI chips, while Google sells Claude through its own cloud platform. This means these companies are not just investors and suppliers. They are also sales partners and competitors.

Anthropic also depends on these companies for computing power. It has promised to pay Google at least $114.5 billion by 2033, Amazon at least $110 billion by 2036, and Microsoft $44.9 billion.

These minimum payment commitments still apply even if Anthropic does not end up using all the computing power it has agreed to buy.

The "Frenemy" Relationship With Cloud Giants

These numbers show just how complicated Anthropic's relationship with the big cloud companies has become. They are both friends and rivals, often called "frenemies."

In April this year, when Anthropic reached an agreement with Amazon, it called AWS its "primary training and cloud service provider for mission-critical workloads." However, the contract figures show that Anthropic has promised to buy more from Google at a minimum, even though the agreement with Google covers a shorter period.

Anthropic also expects to spend another $125 billion to $150 billion on extra computing power from tensor processing units (TPUs). These chips will come from Google and other suppliers and are due to be delivered between 2028 and 2031.

Amazon and Google Are Both Major Shareholders of Anthropic

Amazon and Google are both major investors in Anthropic, but the IPO document does not reveal exactly how many shares each company owns.

One reason is that their shares have no voting rights. As a result, they are not included in the list of shareholders who own more than 5% of Anthropic's voting shares.

However, other parts of the document say that after preferred shares and certain convertible notes are turned into shares as part of the IPO, both Amazon's and Google's holdings will each account for more than 5% of the company.

Amazon has built a close investment and business relationship with Anthropic since agreeing in 2023 to invest up to $40 billion.

According to the IPO document, Amazon has invested about $18 billion in Anthropic so far. It has also promised to invest up to another $150 billion if certain conditions are met.

Amazon also holds convertible notes from investment agreements made in 2023 and 2024. These notes can be turned into as many as 1.84 billion Anthropic shares. That would equal about 10.9% of Anthropic's total shares, assuming all possible shares are counted, as of June this year.

This figure does not include other shares Amazon already owns. However, the convertible notes have a limit: if turning them into shares would give Amazon more than 12% of Anthropic, they cannot be converted unless Amazon chooses to give up this restriction.

Any part of the notes that would push Amazon above the 12% limit will automatically be turned into new notes instead. These new notes can be converted at the end of the next quarter, but the same 12% ownership limit still applies.

Google has invested about $230 billion in Anthropic through several deals and has promised to invest another $200 billion after certain performance goals are met. Under the latest funding agreement, Google's ownership is capped at 14.99%, although Google can choose to give up this limit.

Anthropic Is Deeply Tied to Cloud Giants

The IPO document explains how closely Anthropic's success is linked to the major cloud computing companies.

Anthropic said that moving its work to other cloud providers would be "costly and time-consuming" and could make its computing systems less efficient.

This means Anthropic's dependence on Google, Amazon, and Microsoft goes far beyond a normal supplier relationship. It is built deep into the company's computer systems and the way it does business.

Anthropic also depends on other suppliers, not just the three major cloud companies. For example, it has an equipment lease agreement worth $161.2 billion related to Broadcom. It has also agreed to spend up to $120.5 billion to obtain computing power from SpaceXAI.

In other words, Anthropic is building an enormous system to power its AI products. At the same time, it is becoming more dependent on a small number of large technology companies and chip suppliers.

The IPO document shows that these close relationships have helped Anthropic expand quickly. But they could also create major risks in the future, including higher costs, supply problems, stronger competition, and closer checks from antitrust regulators.

This article was originally published by the official WeChat account "CLS.cn". The author is Zhao Hao, and it was republished with permission from 36Kr.