Microsoft may have to deal with yet another look into its current relationship with OpenAI. A new report from Bloomberg, via unnamed sources, claims that the US Federal Trade Commission is looking into the current financial partnership between the two companies and whether or not it might violate the country's antitrust laws.
The story does state that this examination of this relationship by the FTC is preliminary. So far, the agency has not launched a formal investigation into Microsoft and OpenAI.
This report comes just a few hours after the UK Competition and Markets Authority formally announced it was taking comments from both companies and third parties, before possibly launching its own investigation into the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership.
The CMA stated it wanted to see if Microsoft's deal with OpenAI had affected competition in the AI space in the country. In response, Microsoft stated that its relationship with OpenAI had generated competition in the AI space "while preserving independence for both companies."
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI since 2019, although it is not the majority investor in the generative AI startup. After OpenAI reinstated its CEO Sam Altman a few weeks ago a few days after its old board of directors fired him, the new board brought in Microsoft as a non-voting board member.
Of course, Microsoft and the FTC are already in a long-running legal battle over another matter. The agency filed a lawsuit against Microsoft to try to stop the company from acquiring Activision Blizzard. However, the FTC failed to convince a judge to create a preliminary injunction to stop the purchase, which allowed Microsoft to close the deal to buy the game publisher in October.
Earlier this week, Microsoft and the FTC went before the three judges at the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, as the FTC tried again to claim Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard was a threat to competition and that the earlier judge's decision was a mistake. There's no word on when the judges will make their decision in this case.
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