LONDON – The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced on Wednesday that it has closed its review of Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI. The watchdog determined that the deal does not warrant a closer investigation based on the UK’s merger rules.
According to the CMA, the partnership between Microsoft and the ChatGPT developer does not meet the criteria for a merger investigation, based on the available evidence.
“In particular the CMA does not consider there has been a change of control by Microsoft from material influence to de facto control over OpenAI,” the CMA stated.
Microsoft was an early and significant investor in OpenAI, injecting billions of dollars into the San Francisco-based startup during its initial phases. However, OpenAI has since attracted other major investors. These include Japan’s Softbank and the chipmaker Nvidia, following the success of ChatGPT.
The CMA has increased its scrutiny of AI-related deals as large technology firms continue to invest heavily in startups specializing in generative artificial intelligence. Last year, the CMA approved a separate Microsoft transaction involving Inflection AI. It also cleared partnerships that Google and Amazon established with the chatbot developer, Anthropic.
