LONDON — The United Kingdom’s competition authority announced on Thursday that it is initiating a formal investigation into Google’s collaboration with the AI startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) indicated that it has gathered “sufficient information” to commence an initial inquiry after earlier soliciting opinions regarding whether the partnership may inhibit competition within the market.

The CMA has until December 19 to make a decision on whether to authorize the agreement or further deepen its investigation into the matter.

In response to the investigation, Google stated its commitment to fostering an open and innovative AI environment. The tech giant emphasized that Anthropic is not limited to their services and is free to collaborate with other cloud providers, affirming that they do not impose exclusive technology rights.

Established in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously contributed to the development of ChatGPT at OpenAI, San Francisco-based Anthropic is primarily focused on enhancing the safety and dependability of artificial intelligence models. It was reported that Google made a significant multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic the previous year.

The U.K. regulatory body has been actively reviewing various AI-related agreements as significant investments pour into the sector to leverage the surging interest around artificial intelligence. Recently, it approved Anthropic’s $4 billion agreement with Amazon, along with greenlighting Microsoft’s collaborations with two other AI enterprises, Inflection and Mistral.