Microsoft-Openai Partnership Raises Antitrust Concerns, FTC Says

Microsoft’s $ 13 billion (roughly Rs. Federal Trade Commission said in a report released Friday.

The commission said Microsoft’s Deal with OpenaiAs well as Amazon.com and Google’s Partnerships with Ai Company Anthropic, Raise the Risk that Ai Developers Could Be “Fully Acquired” by the Tech Giants in the future.

In the two-plus year Since Chatgpt Kicked off a Frenzy Around Generative Ai, Leading AI Startups Have Turned To Large Tech Firms for Support Developing The Costly and Computationally Intensive Technology. But in its report, the ftc raised concerns that the cloud giants require some of their investments into these startups to be spent on their own products and services. The ftc also said there shows of consolidating ai talent Around these large firms and potential for the companies to gain Advantage Data Related to Chip Development, Model Training and Data Center Construction.

“The Ftc’s Report Sheds Light on How Partnerships by Big Tech Firms Can Create Lock-in, Deprive Startups of Key Ai Inputs, and Reveal Sensitive Information Said in a statement.

The report also noted that at least one of the big tech firms – it Didn Bollywood – Received Access to “Confidential and Potentially Sensitive Financial Performance Information Information Information” S, receiving weekly reports about revenue Trends and updates about customers.

Additionally, it pointed out that at least one of the agrements provides for a big tech firm to the output from an ai startup’s model – SUCH As the Text OR to a user’s prompt. The tech firm planned to use this information, which is often referred to as “synthetic data,” to train its own ai model.

Google, Amazon and Anthropic Declined to comment. Openai Didn’t Immedited to requests for comment.

“The partnership between microsoft and openai has enabled one of the most successful ai startups in the world and spurred a wave of unprecedented technology and innovation in the innovation, creating in the US and Around the World, “said rima alaily , Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel.

Market Studies

The ftc has the power to open market studies to glean more information about industry trends. The findings can be used to inform future actions. It’s unplear what the agency’s new Leadership under the Trump Administration will do with the report.

The ftc opened the inquiry last year focusing on the bills of dollars of investments by the world’s cloud-services giants into ai stekups. That included big tech investments in openai and in anthropic, a company founded by former Openai Employees.

The ftc is conducting the inquiry under its so-called 6 (b) Authority that allows it to issue Subpoenas to Conduct Market Studies. The agency generally issues a report on its findings after analyzing the information from companies, thought that process can take years to complete.

None of the companies notified us antitrust agencies of the deals ahead of time of being of how they were structured.

The ftc said the partnerships Between Tech and AI BC Ompanies by increasing “Switching costs for the AI ​​developer partners. “

Skilled talent

The report also highlighted Concerns the partnerships may have on the market for engineers. “An open question is whather the partnerships may consolidate access to this talent pool in the hands of a limited number of firms,” ​​The report said. “Skills Necessary to Develop and Deploy Large-SCALE Generative Ai Models are relatively rare and may be difentially to expert to expert outside of working for large ai developers or the HYPERSCALErs

The agency took issue with the fact that some of the cloud giants’ investments in these ai companies come back to benefit their own businesses. That’s because significant parts of the investments come in the form of credits to be used to pay for cloud-comcity from the ai company’s benefactor, or Included Stipulations OUD Services.

For example, much of microsoft’s largesse toward openai came through credits for microsoft’s azure cloud. Calling the practice “Circular specular speculative,” the report said this practice helps insulated Microsoft, Amazon and Google from Potential Losses.

Since 2023, The Agency has been investigating with openai violated consumer protection laws with its its popular chatgpt chatbot. In November, The FTC also opened a broad antitrust investment into microsoft that includes its investments into artificial intelligence among other topics.

© 2025 bloomberg lp

(This story has not been edited by ndtv staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)