To win the AI race, Google has not only developed its own technology, but is also sending money to well-known AI startups. And to stay competitive, Google keeps ownership of those startups secret.
Court documents recently obtained by The New York Times reveal the interests of one of those startups, Google, of one of humanity, and how investments in younger companies change.
Google owns 14% of humanity, according to legal returns filed by AI startups filed as part of the Google Antitrust Act. However, that investment has little control over the company to Google. According to the filing, the internet giant can only own up to 15% of humanity, and Google has no voting rights or board seating.
Still, Google plans to invest another $750 million in humanity in September through a kind of loan known as convertible debt, according to filings. The company agreed to a convertible memo in 2023. In total, Google has invested more than $3 billion in AI companies.
This filing offers a rare glimpse into the investments of large tech companies in AI startups. Such investments have been scrutinized by regulators, who have questioned whether the deal has given incumbents an unfair advantage in a rapidly evolving, powerful technology. Apart from Google, Amazon and Microsoft are also investing in high-profile AI startups such as Anthropic and Openai, the makers of ChatGpt Chatbot.
“Big companies like Google know there's a competition for AI, and there's a cash pile that's big enough to bet on multiple horses,” said Chris V. Nicholson, an investor at a venture capital farm page 1 venture focused on AI technology.
The Humanity application appeared in the landmark Google Antitrust case over online search. In August, a federal court found that Google acted as an exclusive on internet searches and violated the law.
To improve the situation, the Justice Department, which filed a lawsuit against Google, had proposed to force the court to sell the Silicon Valley Company AI products that could compete with the search. This could include the interests of humanity of Google. This makes a chatbot called Claude a chatbot that allows people to ask for search queries.
On Friday, the Justice Department pulled back the proposal, claiming that Google should only notify government officials before investing in AI.
Humanity submitted documents viewed by the Times before the Justice Department changed courses. Public docket filings include editing. The human law firm sent an unedited copy of the filing to the Times.
In an unedited filing, humanity said that Google should not be forced to sell its shares in the startup. Human lawyers write that by lowering the market value of young companies and hindering their ability to raise capital, they “will more commonly hurt both humanity and competition.”
Humanity co-founder Tom Brown added that if Google is forced to cut off their ties, the startups will “have severe harm,” the documents showed.
Google declined to comment on the financial conditions of its human issues. It said it invested in many companies in stocks, earning profits and growing the market. Humanity declined to comment.
Humanity was founded in 2021 by Dario Amodei and his sister Daniela Amodei. They created anthropology to build AI using safety guardrails and formed the company as a public benefit corporation aimed at creating public and social benefits.
(Times sued Openai and Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement of news content related to AI Systems. Openai and Microsoft denied these claims.)
According to court filings, humanity has worked to ensure that a single technological giant is not owned or controlled. In total, the company has raised more than $14.8 billion from venture capital companies such as Menlo Ventures.
In 2023, Google invested more than $2 billion in humanity. That same year, Amazon invested $4 billion in humanity and another $4 billion last year.
Today, Google's investment in humanity deserves “a substantial amount” than the latest funding round for startups that closed this month, according to court filings. Funding valued humanity at $61.5 billion.
Humanity has agreed to buy a large amount of computing power from Google and Amazon to build AI systems, and use chips and cloud computing services from some of the companies that invested in it. It effectively means that some of the money it collects will be returned to the investors.
