Microsoft, one of the world's largest tech giants, has made a significant $13 billion worth of investment in OpenAI. It's important to note that this investment is not an acquisition, as clarified by European Union antitrust regulators. This distinction is crucial, as it relieves Microsoft from potential onerous remedies that could have resulted from a formal European probe.
EU regulators stated in the month of January that the deal could be subject to merger rules in the region. Microsoft said last year that it did not own OpenAI, in any shape or form. Moreover, Microsoft has a non-voting position on the board of OpenAI.
The European Commission is investigating closely to see whether Microsoft's investment in the ChatGPT maker company is "reviewable under the EU Merger Regulation," as stated by the EU competition enforcer. As Reuters requested to comment, OpenAI did not release any immediate response. Microsoft did not release any statement at all.
However, the EU competition enforcer is looking closely at the largest digital market players making partnerships with generative AI developers or providers to investigate their market power thoroughly. Hence, Microsoft is still under the EU regulator's radar.
The Microsoft-OpenAI partnership is facing serious scrutiny in other regions as well. The US Justice Department along with the Federal Trade Commission are thinking about starting an investigation, according to sources. While, on the other hand, UK's Competition and Markets Authority can launch a probe any day now, to compute how the deal will affect competition among various firms in the UK. Therefore, Microsoft is now scouting partnerships with other AI companies to dodge such probes. Microsoft also announced its pact with Mistral AI, the French startup company, at the beginning of this year.
