The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced Friday it was opening an initial review of Microsoft’s partnership with the company behind ChatGPT.
The CMA said it is inviting each company and interested third parties to comment on whether the partnership “including recent developments” has “resulted in a relevant merger situation.”
The invitation to comment is the first part of the CMA’s information gathering process and comes before any formal investigation.
It marks the first public step a global regulator has taken to examine the partnership between the two companies.
Microsoft invested heavily in OpenAI earlier this year and has incorporated ChatGPT into Microsoft tools, including its Bing search engine.
Last month, the partnership escalated when Microsoft secured a non-voting position on the OpenAI board as part of a new deal to bring back OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman after his suprise ouster.
The CMA will review if the partnership has resulted in an “acquisition control,” with one party having “material influence”
In response to the announcement, Microsoft’s vice chair and president Brad Smith said through the partnership both companies have maintained their independence, and called out rival company Google’s 2014 acquisition of the AI company DeepMind.
“Since 2019, we’ve forged a partnership with OpenAI that has fostered more AI innovation and competition, while preserving independence for both companies,” Smith said.
Read a full report at TheHill.com.
