The AI investment frenzy sees "divine returns"! Google's and Amazon's quarterly profits surge, and the behind-the-scenes driver is actually the same AI unicorn

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Google (GOOGL.US) and Amazon (AMZN.US) have gained favor from investors due to their better-than-expected profit performance in the third quarter. Notably, the growth in performance for both companies is attributed to the rising investment value in the popular chatbot Claude's developer, Anthropic PBC.

Google stated that its quarterly profit includes "net gains of $10.7 billion from equity securities," with part of the earnings coming from a private company. According to insiders, this company is Anthropic. Meanwhile, Amazon's third-quarter profit surged by 38%, with $9.5 billion of pre-tax earnings from its investment in Anthropic playing a significant role. Amazon noted in its earnings report released last Thursday that this appreciation has been reflected in the non-operating income for the quarter.

These returns indicate that the investment boom in the generative AI sector of private companies is beginning to reflect in the financial metrics of publicly traded companies. Although AI technology itself has just entered the stage of commercial returns, equity investments in related startups—initially viewed merely as strategic bets on rapidly evolving frontier fields—are now generating substantial profits for some global giants (even though they remain on paper for now).

Both Google and Anthropic's spokespersons declined to comment.

In September of this year, Anthropic completed a $13 billion financing round, nearly doubling its valuation to $183 billion. According to accounting standards, companies must adjust the investment value based on changes in the per-share market price, even if they have not yet directly profited from that investment.

This is not the first time Google has boosted profits due to changes in investment valuations. In April of this year, the company's first-quarter results included $8 billion in unrealized gains from investments in a private company, reportedly SpaceX, owned by Musk.

Meanwhile, Microsoft (MSFT.US) mentioned in its quarterly earnings report released last week that its net profit decreased by $3.1 billion due to losses from OpenAI. Currently, Microsoft has invested $13.75 billion in this ChatGPT developer and holds a 27% stake in it.

It is understood that Google has invested approximately $3 billion in Anthropic, with $2 billion invested in 2023 and an additional $1 billion added earlier this year. This month, Google Cloud also reached an agreement with Anthropic to supply 1 million dedicated AI chips starting in 2026, aiding Anthropic in rapidly deploying over a billion watts of computing power. Reports indicate that this contract is worth several billion dollars.

Amazon has supported Anthropic with an $8 billion investment and has built a large infrastructure consisting of a network of data centers and custom AI chips for it through the Rainier project. Amazon confirmed that this facility is now fully operational