Microsoft鈥檚 OpenAI investment could trigger merger review
Jan 9, 2024, 10:03 AM | Updated: 10:32 am
Microsoft鈥檚 multibillion-dollar聽聽could trigger a European Union merger investigation, the bloc鈥檚 executive branch said Tuesday.
The European Commission said it鈥檚 鈥渃hecking whether Microsoft鈥檚 investment in OpenAI might be reviewable鈥� under regulations covering mergers and acquisitions that would harm competition in the 27-nation EU.
The review could lead to a formal investigation into whether the deal should be unconditionally cleared, allowed with concessions from the companies or blocked. Britain鈥檚 antitrust watchdog opened a similar review last month.
Antitrust enforcers in the U.S. also have signaled concerns about competition in the AI industry. The Federal Trade Commission in November approved new measures enabling it to more easily聽, noting that 鈥淎I can raise competition issues in a variety of ways, including if one or just a few companies control the essential inputs or technologies that underpin AI.鈥�
OpenAI has received several rounds of funding from Microsoft, including an initial $1 billion in 2019 and a multibillion-dollar investment last year.
OpenAI鈥檚 generative AI chatbot聽聽with its advanced capabilities, catapulting the San Francisco-based startup to the top ranks of AI companies.聽聽like ChatGPT can spit out new text, images, videos or audio recordings based on prompts from users.
The European Commission, the bloc鈥檚 top antitrust enforcer, is asking businesses and experts for input on any competition issues that they see in generative AI and has asked 鈥渟everal large digital players鈥� 鈥� which it didn鈥檛 identify 鈥� for information.
The commission is 鈥渁lso closely monitoring AI partnerships to ensure they do not unduly distort market dynamics,鈥� the EU鈥檚 antitrust enforcer, Margrethe Vestager, said in a press release.
Vestager is due to meet with OpenAI executives on a trip this week to the U.S., as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and聽.
