Alphabet Faces 2.25% Australian News Levy, Invests US$40bn in Anthropic
The Australian government will impose a 2.25% levy on tech companies' local revenue from July 2025 if Alphabet and others do not reach licensing deals with Australian news outlets. Alphabet committed US$40bn for a stake in AI startup Anthropic to expand its cloud and compute capacity, intensifying generative AI competition.
1. Proposed Australian News Bargaining Incentive
Under draft legislation, a 2.25% levy on local digital revenues will apply from the 2025–26 financial year if platforms like Google do not strike content licensing deals. Proceeds will be allocated to news organisations based on journalist headcounts, with larger offsets awarded for agreements with smaller outlets.
2. US$40bn Anthropic Stake and AI Compute Strategy
Alphabet’s US$40bn equity commitment in Anthropic reinforces its push into generative AI, enabling expansion of its cloud and compute infrastructure. The investment positions Alphabet to compete more directly with AWS and Azure by offering advanced AI services powered by Anthropic’s models.