(Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have reached an agreement that will allow them to continue antitrust investigations into the dominant roles played by Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia in the artificial intelligence industry, the New reported York Times Wednesday. with reference to people familiar with the matter.
Under the deal, the US Department of Justice will take the lead in investigating whether Nvidia violated antitrust laws, while the FTC will investigate the conduct of OpenAI and Microsoft, the report said. Although OpenAI’s parent company is a nonprofit, Microsoft has invested $13 billion in a for-profit subsidiary for a 49% stake.
The Microsoft-OpenAI partnership is also under informal scrutiny in other regions.
Regulators closed the deal last week and it is expected to close in the coming days, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
The FTC would investigate Microsoft’s $650 million deal with AI startup Inflection AI, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
These moves indicate growing regulatory scrutiny of the AI ​​industry. In January, the FTC ordered OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet Amazon and Anthropic to provide information on recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and cloud service providers.
In July last year, the FTC opened an investigation into OpenAI following claims that it had violated consumer protection laws by compromising personal reputations and data.
Last week, US antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter referred to “structures and trends in AI that should give us pause” at an AI conference, adding that the technology relies on vast amounts of data and computing power, which puts already dominant companies at risk. can give you an edge. substantial benefit.
Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, the Justice Department and the FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
(Reporting by Gnaneshwar Rajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
