Did Elon Musk Just Say "Checkmate" to Amazon?

Key Points

• Amazon invested billions of dollars into artificial intelligence (AI) platform Anthropic.

• Anthropic is a core pillar in Amazon's growth roadmap, particularly in cloud computing.

• Musk publicly dissed Anthropic in its pursuit of dominance in the AI realm.

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Rivalries have existed for as long as history can remember. In today's world, we often associate them with sports -- where players, and by extension, the fans -- trade barbs during tense competition. What's more surprising, though, is how similar rhetoric emerges in the corporate arena from time to time.

In recent weeks, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp all but declared a decisive victory over his company's competition. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, however, didn't let that jab go unanswered -- hinting instead that Palantir's software is overpriced.

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One executive who has never been one to mince words or avoid expressing blunt opinions is Elon Musk. In recent years, he has frequently sparred publicly with Sam Altman -- the CEO of ChatGPT creator, OpenAI. In response to disagreements over OpenAI's business model, Musk went on to launch his own competing startup, xAI.

Image source: Getty Images.

While many initially assumed that xAI was born primarily out of clashes with OpenAI's leadership, Musk now appears to have shifted his gears toward a new rival: Anthropic. Recently, Musk took to social media platform X and had this to say about rising competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) space:

Winning was never in the set of possible outcomes for Anthropic

-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Sept. 23, 2025

Let's break down Musk's swipe at Anthropic and explore why such a pointed comment could be concerning for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) investors in particular.

Why did Musk diss Anthropic?

Following the commercial launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, a wave of competing large language models (LLMs) quickly entered the market. Startups such as Perplexity and Anthropic introduced their own platforms, while established tech giants like Alphabet and Meta Platforms released proprietary models, Gemini and Llama, respectively.

This rapid proliferation of LLMs led Palantir's Karp to characterize these products as increasingly commoditized. His point was not that LLMs lack significance, but rather the true differentiator revolves around how organizations apply data to these models in order to build enterprise-grade applications.

By dismissing Anthropic publicly, Musk seems to be suggesting that only a finite number of LLM platforms will truly achieve sustained global distribution. For Musk, the advantage lies in vertical integration: aligning xAI with his other companies, namely Tesla and SpaceX. In this context, control over vast computing infrastructure isn't just an operational competitive edge -- it's the ultimate strategic asset.

Does Musk have a point?

In the table below, I've summarized annual revenue growth rates for Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Amazon Web Services over the last year:

Data source: Microsoft Investor Relations

Data source: Alphabet and Amazon Investor Relations

To ensure a fair comparison, I separated the tables since Microsoft's fiscal year timeline differs from the standard calendar quarter used by Alphabet and Amazon. The results are clear: Azure's growth is accelerating, GCP is consistently expanding around 30%, while AWS shows slowing momentum -- growing at roughly half the pace of its peers.

Despite raising billions of dollars to scale its Claude model, Anthropic is competing in an environment where hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure and GCP are rapidly expanding their own AI capabilities. My view on Musk's remark about Anthropic is that the company appears boxed in -- particularly within the Amazon Web Services ecosystem.

Should Amazon investors be worried?

Given AWS's deep ties to Anthropic -- through Amazon Bedrock integration and the use of is custom Trainium and Inferentia chips for model training -- Musk's criticism strikes particularly close to home. That said, it's worth stepping back whenever a competitor engages in public taunting. Musk's post on X was as much a marketing play for xAI's LLM, Grok, as it was a critique of Anthropic's role in AWS's strategy.

The real question for Amazon investors shouldn't be whether Anthropic has won or lost anything, as Musk implies. Rather, the concern should be whether Amazon's broader AI initiatives are keeping pace with the competition.

While headlines may exaggerate Musk's remarks, they fall short of completely negating the Amazon thesis. AWS remains larger than Azure and GCP -- meaning slower growth still compounds on a much larger base. More importantly, AWS continues to generate substantial operating profits -- which Amazon then reinvests in other AI-driven areas such as robotics.

In short, this is not a reason to hit the panic button. Amazon's broader growth story remains intact, even if Anthropic never reaches the scale of ChatGPT, Gemini, or Grok. For these reasons, it's premature to say that Musk has declared "checkmate" over Amazon.

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Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.