Source: AFP
The EU will examine the impact of Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI developer ChatGPT on competition in the fast-growing artificial intelligence market, the bloc’s antitrust chief said on Friday.
However, the European Commission concluded after a preliminary examination that the $13 billion pledge did not mean that the US tech giant had taken control of OpenAI.
“The key question was whether Microsoft had acquired control over OpenAI on a long-term basis. After careful consideration … we concluded that it therefore did not,” said EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
“So we are closing this chapter. But the point is that the story is not over,” she said during a speech in Brussels.
Instead, the EU has now asked Microsoft for more information about the deal between the two companies, Vestager said, “to understand whether certain exclusivity clauses could have negative effects on competition.”
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He also said the EU has sought more information about Google’s deal with Samsung to pre-install the small version of its AI system, Gemini, on some devices made by the South Korean giant.
And Brussels wanted to understand the impact of so-called “acqui-hires,” Vestager added, when one company buys another primarily to grab key talent.
Microsoft earlier this year announced a deal to hire senior executives from OpenAI rival Inflection, including its boss, to run a new consumer AI unit. But unlike a merger, Inflection still operates as an independent company.
That means it does not face a traditional merger investigation, which would give regulators the right to block a takeover.
The EU’s study of Microsoft and OpenAI came after a failed boardroom coup last year against ChatGPT maker CEO Sam Altman, whom Microsoft supported and even hired for a while.
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US and UK regulators are also considering the partnership.
Microsoft welcomed the conclusion of the EU review.
“We appreciate the European Commission’s thorough review and its conclusion that Microsoft’s investment in and collaboration with OpenAI does not give Microsoft control of the company,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.
“We stand ready to answer any additional questions the European Commission may have.”
Source: AFP
