Google is making a significant investment of more than $1 billion into the artificial intelligence (AI) startup Anthropic, according to a report by the Financial Times on Wednesday.

This move comes after reports in January indicated that Anthropic was nearing a $2 billion fundraising round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, which would value the company at approximately $60 billion.

The Financial Times noted that Google’s latest investment is separate from the Lightspeed funding round, highlighting its ongoing commitment to the AI space.

Anthropic, which competes directly with OpenAI in the AI foundation model market, did not provide a comment on the news. Google also did not respond to inquiries outside regular business hours.

This fresh investment from Google builds upon its existing $2 billion commitment to Anthropic. E-commerce giant Amazon has also significantly increased its involvement, doubling its stake in the AI startup to $8 billion late last year.

Anthropic, which generated approximately $875 million in annualized revenue, sells access to its advanced AI models both directly and through third-party cloud services, including Amazon Web Services. As AI development requires expensive computing power and top-tier talent, these investments are critical for companies like Google and Amazon to maintain their competitive edge.

The rapidly growing AI arms race, sparked by OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, shows no signs of slowing down, with major players like Microsoft and Amazon aggressively backing AI firms.