The US FTC opens a probe into investments by Microsoft in OpenAI and by Amazon and Google in Anthropic, to assess how the deals alter the competitive landscape
The agency plans to scrutinize Microsoft, Amazon and Google for their investments in the A.I. start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic.
New York TimesDavid McCabe
Context & Ripple Effects
The FTC had already been examining the nature of Microsoft’s OpenAI investment in late 2023, including possible antitrust implications, in an earlier review of the Microsoft-OpenAI relationship. This probe broadens the competitive question beyond one partnership to the major cloud companies’ ties with leading AI labs.
The central issue is whether investments that stop short of an acquisition can still shape access to AI models, cloud capacity, and routes to market.
First-order effects
Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic face FTC information demands and scrutiny of how their investment arrangements affect competition.
The inquiry puts the commercial terms surrounding the companies’ AI partnerships—not just their ownership stakes—under regulatory attention.
Second-order effects
Cloud providers and AI labs may face pressure to document or revisit provisions involving infrastructure access, distribution, and strategic influence as the FTC assesses the deals.
Competitors seeking model access or cloud customers gain a clearer regulatory channel to argue that major-platform partnerships can constrain AI-market competition.
Third-order effects
If regulators sustain this approach, minority investments and commercial alliances could receive antitrust treatment closer to that applied to traditional acquisitions when they connect dominant platforms with frontier AI suppliers.
The case may help determine whether AI competition is governed mainly at the model layer or by the combined control of capital, cloud infrastructure, and distribution.
The trend: AI antitrust oversight is expanding from headline acquisitions toward the strategic investment-and-infrastructure ties between large platforms and AI labs.
I get it. That's what the US does. But ever since the US started to investigate and eventually sued Microsoft back between 1990 and 2001, I kept asking myself, does it really matter? Windows and Explorer died their natural death anyway, and Apple did not need a government anti…
RE: My October 2023 essay: Parallel Bets, Microsoft, and AI Strategies — Thoughts on corporate strategy formulation in the “age of AI,” the messiness of these strategies, and lessons from the past. https://www.matthewball.vc/...
Google on the FTC inquiry into their Anthropic investment: “We hope the FTC's study will shine a bright light on companies that don't offer the openness of Google Cloud or have a long history of locking-in customers - and who are bringing that same approach to AI services.”
With the CMA, the EU and now the FTC investigating, the walls are quickly closing in on these so-called AI “partnerships” - better described as acquisitions in all but name.
Today at noon ET, the FTC's Office of Technology will host a virtual, half-day summit focused on artificial intelligence (#AI). Watch here: https://kvgo.com/... #TechSummitAI
So typical of this @FTC to launch a 6(b) “investigation” into generative AI business arrangements while having a panel that has already judged the companies guilty. They literally don't care how it looks.
watching this #TechSummitAI and can't believe how one-sided this agenda is. The first panel is just an all-out attack on Nvidia & Amazon with zero serious responses thus far. It's #antitrust doomerism on steroids.
New: The FTC has launched an inquiry into Microsoft's investment in OpenAI and Google and Amazon's investments in Anthropic. The findings of the study could influence later formal investigations into whether the companies have broken any laws. https://www.nytimes.com/...
FTC issues 6(b) orders regarding recent investments and partnerships involving generative #AI and major cloud service providers: https://www.ftc.gov/... #GenAI /1
FTC is seeking info from Microsoft-OpenAI, Amazon-Anthropic, and Google-Anthropic on their investments + partnerships re: generative AI and cloud service providers. Focus on goal + implications of partnerships/investments + analysis of competitive impact. https://www.ftc.gov/...