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“ Overall , taking into account all of the uncommitted evidence [ … ] the CMA does not believe that Microsoft presently master OpenAI ’s commercial policy , and instead exert a high level of material influence over that policy , ” the CMAwrote in its decision . “ In other words there is no modification of control give rise to a relevant merger situation . ”
The CMA start investigating Microsoft ’s partnership with OpenAI in December 2023 . The tech giant star is one of the AI companionship ’s top investors , withnearly $ 14 billioninvested since 2019 . Microsoft also box many of OpenAI ’s engineering in a managed offering called the Azure OpenAI Service , and it works close with the turnout to develop products like its Copilot chatbot and GitHub Copilot AI tantalize assistant .
The CMA was initially pertain that Microsoft had get control condition over OpenAI ’s commercial policy in 2019 , and that this control condition increased watch over Microsoft ’s role in securingOpenAI CEO Sam Altman ’s re - appointmentin November 2023 . The CMA believed such control could leave in a “ strong drop-off ” of AI industry contest in the U.K.
“ [ A]n increase in Microsoft ’s control over OpenAI could give ascent to potential competitor business if Microsoft was able to limit competitor ’ access to OpenAI ’s leading model in markets where access to [ AI ] is likely to be important and where Microsoft already holds strong market place positions , ” the agencywrote in a filing . “ The CMA was also implicated that the partnership could potentially bear upon competition in the emerging market for the supply of accelerated compute , given OpenAI ’s potential difference to pretend as an important customer in this mart . ”
But as the CMA noted in its conclusion on Wednesday , recent developments have potentially weakened — not strengthened — Microsoft ’s influence over OpenAI .
In January , Microsoft said it hadrenegotiatedelements of its cloud computing correspondence with OpenAI , moving to a model where the technical school titan has the “ first right field of refusal ” for sure OpenAI workloads . Microsoft has also granted waivers to let OpenAI build extra computing capacity , includinga $ 500 billion U.S. data center dealwith investor SoftBank . Previously , Microsoft was OpenAI ’s exclusive swarm provider .
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Last year , Microsoft also dropped plans to take a board seat at OpenAI , which might have invited additional regulative scrutiny .
“ Material aspects of the [ Microsoft ] partnership have been convert over the form of the investigation , ” the CMA spell in its decision . “ moreover , there is no ‘ bright occupation ’ between factors which might give rise to material influence and those giving rising slope to de facto control . ”
The CMA has aggressively investigated the technical school manufacture ’s investment funds in AI and AI inauguration in an cause to prevent a consolidation of power in the nascent sphere . However , while the agency has antecedently characterise big technical school partnerships with AI startups as an “ interconnected web , ” it has n’t found evidence of wrongdoing . In November , the CMAclearedGoogle parent caller Alphabet ’s dealing with OpenAI rival Anthropic .
