“My last newsletter focused heavily on the ramifications of big tech — primarily Google, Amazon and Microsoft — bankrolling the generative AI boom, both through investment and by heavily subsidizing the rates that OpenAI (and likely Anthropic) pay to run their services, and through pouring billions of dollars of venture capital into AI companies.”
Our reading:
Google, Amazon and Microsoft are bankrolling the generative AI boom, including heavily subsidizing the compute rates OpenAI (and likely Anthropic) pay.
Assessment: Supported
What happened
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Supported
The evidence matches what they said.
Judged on a plain reading. They named no measure, so we used the reading a typical informed reader would take. It is spelled out under “How we judged it”.
Evidence up to . Checked .
Why
The claim is that Google, Amazon and Microsoft were bankrolling generative AI through big investments and through cheap compute for OpenAI. The record backs this. Microsoft put $10 billion into OpenAI in early 2023, and reporting based on The Information said OpenAI got Azure compute at a 'substantially reduced rate' (e1). Amazon finished a $4 billion investment in Anthropic in March 2024 (e2). Google committed $2 billion to Anthropic in October 2023 (e3). Microsoft's later filing confirmed $13 billion in commitments to OpenAI (e4, context). Zitron hedged the Anthropic subsidy with 'likely', so it is not scored.
Caveats
- The discount evidence is a secondhand news summary of private pricing, not a company disclosure.
- I did not test whether 'subsidizing' means below cost. It is read as preferential pricing.
Evidence (4 items)
Supports the claim: PC Gamer (via Yahoo Finance),
In return, as well as the investment, OpenAI is thought to get access to Azure cloud servers and a substantially reduced rate.
Why it matters: Summarizing The Information's July 2024 reporting, it says Microsoft invested $10B in early 2023 and that OpenAI gets Azure compute at a much reduced rate. This matches the investment and subsidy parts of the claim.
- Where
- paragraph 4
- Publisher
- PC Gamer (via Yahoo Finance)
- Kind of source
- News report
- Measures
- Microsoft, Amazon, Google (as investors in OpenAI and Anthropic), Investment in AI labs and discounted compute pricing to OpenAI, USD billions of dollars, estimate, 2023-01-01 to 2024-09-26
- About events on
- Published
Supports the claim: Thurrott.com,
This week, the online giant invested another $2.75 billion, concluding the potential investment in full.
Why it matters: Amazon put $4B into Anthropic by March 2024. This supports the claim that Amazon was bankrolling generative AI companies.
- Where
- paragraph 3
- Publisher
- Thurrott.com
- Kind of source
- News report
- Measures
- Microsoft, Amazon, Google (as investors in OpenAI and Anthropic), Investment in AI labs and discounted compute pricing to OpenAI, USD billions of dollars, estimate, 2023-01-01 to 2024-09-26
- About events on
- Published
Supports the claim: Bloomberg Law,
Google has committed to invest $2 billion in the artificial intelligence company Anthropic, solidifying its relationship with the startup darling and stoking the Silicon Valley frenzy for AI.
Why it matters: Google committed $2B to Anthropic in October 2023. This supports Google's part in bankrolling the boom.
- Where
- paragraph 1
- Publisher
- Bloomberg Law
- Kind of source
- News report
- Measures
- Microsoft, Amazon, Google (as investors in OpenAI and Anthropic), Investment in AI labs and discounted compute pricing to OpenAI, USD billions of dollars, estimate, 2023-01-01 to 2024-09-26
- About events on
- Published
Supports the claim: GeekWire,
it has made “total funding commitments of $13 billion” to the ChatGPT maker.
Why it matters: Microsoft's own filing for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 confirms $13B in commitments to OpenAI. It is context because the filing date falls just after the post.
- Where
- paragraph 1
- Publisher
- GeekWire
- Kind of source
- News report
- About events on
- Published
How we judged it
- Kind of claim
- Observation
- Deadline
- None given. We don’t add one.
Conditions
- Anthropic subsidy described as 'likely' (their words)
Where we had to interpret
- Plain reading: by September 2024, Google, Amazon and Microsoft had put billions of dollars into leading generative AI companies, and OpenAI got its compute from Microsoft at preferential (below-market) rates.
- Preferential or discounted pricing counts as 'subsidizing'. It does not have to be below Microsoft's own cost.
- The Anthropic subsidy is hedged ('likely'), so it is not required for support. Big Tech investment in Anthropic still counts toward 'bankrolling' and 'venture capital'.
- The claim describes an ongoing state as of the post. The target period covers the investments and pricing in place from early 2023 up to the post date. It is not narrowed to a single quarter.
Right if: Credible reports or filings show multibillion-dollar investments by Microsoft, Amazon and/or Google in OpenAI or Anthropic during 2023–2024, plus reporting that OpenAI paid Microsoft discounted or below-market compute rates.
Wrong if: Evidence shows the named firms had not made large investments in AI labs, or that OpenAI paid standard or above-market rates for its Microsoft compute.
We wrote this test after the outcome was known.
We found 30 claims in this post. See them all.
Full record
Source and dates
Where's Your Ed At, The Other Bubble, paragraph 4.
- Said
- We read the source
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence up to
- Checked
We read this wording on 2026-10-28. The post may have been edited after 2024-09-26.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the posts we read.
: Where's Your Ed At, The Other Bubble
My last newsletter focused heavily on the ramifications of big tech — primarily Google, Amazon and Microsoft — bankrolling the generative AI boom, both through investment and by heavily subsidizing the rates that OpenAI (and likely Anthropic) pay to run their services, and through pouring billions of dollars of venture capital into AI companies.
- Where
- paragraph 4
- Published
- 2024-09-26
- We read it
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Versions
- Current: Supported. Evidence up to 2026-10-28.
What happened to this record
PublishedBy us
Published after both AI reviews and the final check passed.
Held backBy us
A reviewer said our test wasn’t fair to what was actually said.