Amazon Stock Climbs Amid Anthropic Deal Restructuring Reports
Amazon's stock has shown a slight increase in overnight trading, following reports about a restructuring of its deal with AI startup Anthropic. According to The Information, Amazon is shifting from a computing-hour-based payment model to a token-based pricing model for Anthropic's AI models, starting next year. The change has raised concerns that it could increase Amazon's costs, but the company has disputed this claim. Amazon stated that the expanded collaboration with Anthropic will not lead to higher costs and emphasized the strong technical partnership between the two companies.
The report also noted that Amazon is exploring the use of OpenAI's models and its own Nova models to reduce costs, especially after Anthropic increased the prices for using its models in Amazon products. Amazon has been a major early backer of Anthropic, having invested $4 billion in 2023, with plans to invest up to an additional $25 billion. Additionally, Amazon has signed a deal with OpenAI to offer its models to customers on Amazon Web Services.
Amazon's Prime Day sale, which concluded last week, saw shoppers spending $26.4 billion, a 9.3% increase compared to the previous year. This strong performance has contributed to the positive momentum in Amazon's stock, which rose 3.2% on Monday and continued to inch higher in overnight trading. The Prime Day success highlights the company's ability to drive significant sales even in an inflationary environment.
Investors are closely watching Anthropic ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering, which is expected to be one of the largest in corporate history. Currently valued at $1.07 trillion, Anthropic has confidentially filed paperwork for the offering, although there are reports that it might delay its IPO to 2027. Retail investors are gaining exposure to Anthropic and OpenAI through various funds, despite bearish sentiment on Stocktwits for both companies. Amazon shares, meanwhile, remain bullish and are up 4% year to date, despite being down 14% from their May 5 peak.