The UK’s competition watchdog has closed its review of Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, declaring that the deal doesn’t warrant a more extensive probe under the country’s merger regulations.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced Wednesday that, based on the available evidence, the partnership between the American tech giant and the creator of ChatGPT does not qualify for a merger investigation. “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 watchdog stated.
Microsoft initially provided substantial backing to OpenAI, investing billions of dollars in the San Francisco-based startup during its early stages. However, OpenAI has since attracted other major investors, including Japan’s Softbank and the chipmaker Nvidia, following the success of ChatGPT.
The CMA has increased its scrutiny of AI deals amidst a surge in investment from major tech companies into startups focused on generative artificial intelligence. Last year, the CMA approved another Microsoft deal involving Inflection AI, as well as partnerships with chatbot maker Anthropic by Google and Amazon.
