The US stock market watchdog FTC is investigating Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. The reason is concern that the billion-dollar investment will lead to dominance in AI, with the risk that the AI company will be acquired entirely.
Ties between Microsoft and OpenAI have become increasingly close in recent years. Microsoft has invested $13 billion (€12.6 billion) in OpenAI and uses the technology in several products. This collaboration has led to the integration of ChatGPT into Microsoft applications such as Word and Outlook.
The FTC is, therefore, investigating whether Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI leads to unfair competitive advantages. There are concerns that the collaboration could hamper innovation in the AI industry and exclude smaller players.
Suspicions
According to the FTC, similar risks are also associated with Amazon and Google’s investments in Anthropic. They, too, are part of a report by the regulator. The FTC is concerned that some of the startup investments are made to promote the cloud companies’ products and services. Also, talent may be tied up through the investments, and there is the potential that they are obtaining data on chip development, model training and data centre construction.
“The FTC’s report sheds light on how partnerships by big tech firms can create lock-in, deprive startups of key AI inputs, and reveal sensitive information that can undermine fair competition,” the regulator said. In addition, Microsoft, Google or Amazon would have gained access to “confidential and potentially sensitive financial performance information” after the investment. The FTC did not clarify which of the three accessed this information.