US antitrust agencies are investigating the role of Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia in the booming era of artificial intelligence (AI).
According to a report by The New York Times, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) have agreed on how to divide the work in potential antitrust investigations with giants. technology. The DOJ will lead the investigations into Nvidia, while the FTC will look into the deal between OpenAI and its largest investor, Microsoft.
Since January of this year, the FTC has begun looking into antitrust issues related to investments by large technology companies in smaller AI companies. The agency has sent request letters to Alphabet, Amazon, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI. Alphabet, Google's parent company, and Amazon are both investors in Anthropic.
The FTC is currently investigating OpenAI's data collection practices, having opened an investigation in 2023 to determine whether the company caused potential harm and spread false information about individuals. Microsoft's investment in OpenAI could also come under scrutiny beyond the US, with the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority investigating Microsoft's $13 billion investment in maker ChatGPT .
However, Nvidia has never been mentioned in any antitrust discussions in the US. Nvidia is considered a leader in producing the chips that power the AI boom. The company's H100 GPUs are very popular, increasing Nvidia's market value. In September 2023, French antitrust authorities raided Nvidia's offices in France as part of an investigation into unfair competition practices.
Although the FTC and DOJ investigation does not mean the Biden administration is preparing to sue these companies, according to The New York Times, a similar settlement in 2019 led to antitrust lawsuits. rights to Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta.
The investigation by the FTC and DOJ is a sign that the US government is serious about controlling the power of technology giants in the field of AI. Will this investigation lead to legal measures or is it just a warning? We will have to wait and see the results of this investigation.
