SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — The federal government is investigating investments and partnerships five corporate giants may have underway, including new acquisitions, involving generative AI companies and major cloud service providers.
The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that it issued orders to Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com, Inc., Microsoft, OpenAI Inc. and the San Francisco-based Anthropic PBC to learn about new corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers and "build an understanding" of any impacts on the market and competition.
The commission voted 3-0 to issue Section 6(b) orders and conduct the study of AI investments and partnerships. That authorizes new studies of current market trends and business practices, including to inform future commission actions.
Companies have deployed a range of strategies in developing and using AI, including pursuing partnerships and direct investments with AI developers to access the latest technologies, the FTC said in a statement.
The commission is seeking specific information about new agreements and possible implications for new product releases; partnerships’ impact on market share, competition and expansion into product markets; and data provided to any other government entity in connection with any investigation, or request for information on AI market developments.
“History shows that new technologies can create new markets and healthy competition. As companies race to develop and monetize AI, we must guard against tactics that foreclose this opportunity, “ FTC chair Lina M. Khan said. “Our study will shed light on whether investments and partnerships pursued by dominant companies risk distorting innovation and undermining fair competition."
The companies have 45 days from receiving the order to respond.
Google, which is owned by Alphabet, used the announcement to tout the company's transparency.
“We hope the FTC’s study will shine a bright light on companies that don’t offer the openness of Google Cloud or have a long history of locking-in customers — and who are bringing that same approach to AI services," a Google spokesperson told Courthouse News via email.
Microsoft offered a vague statement applauding U.S. tech leaders.
“The U.S. has assumed a global AI leadership position because important American companies are working together. Partnerships between independent companies like Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as among many others, are promoting competition and accelerating innovation," said Microsoft's competition and market regulation group corporate vice president Rima Alaily.
Representatives of Amazon and Anthropic PBC declined to comment, and spokespersons for OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment.
Amazon and Anthropic are both involved in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development AI working groups, the Global Partnership on AI, the Partnership on AI, the International Organization for Standardization, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Responsible AI Institute.
The companies announced in September 2023 that an extensive collaboration was underway with Amazon investing $4 billion into Anthropic and holding an ownership position within it.
Anthropic will use Amazon chips to build, train and deploy foundation models, and use it as the primary cloud provider for its workloads. Amazon developers and engineers will be able to build with Anthropic models to incorporate generative AI capabilities across the company's businesses.
Andy Jassy, Amazon's CEO, promoted Amazon Bedrock in a September statement, describing the service as one that "enables companies to use various foundation models to build generative AI applications on top of," as well as an "AI training chip" known as Trainium.
"Our collaboration with Anthropic should help customers get even more value from these two capabilities,” Jassy said.
Microsoft in 2023 acquired Santa Clara-based tech company Fungible, which develops hardware and software to improve data centers' reliability and performance.
OpenAI in the same year acquired Global Illumination, a company leveraging AI to build creative tools and infrastructure including products for Meta, YouTube, Google, Pixar and Riot Games.
Microsoft made its first $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019. The the startup announced ChatGPT more than two years later. Microsoft has never publicly disclosed the total amount of its investment in OpenAI, and its power over the company was scrutinized last year when the startup’s board of directors suddenly fired CEO Sam Altman, who was quickly reinstated, in turmoil that made world headlines.
The European Union and the United Kingdom are also eyeing the companies' relationship. This month the EU’s executive branch said it is exploring the possibility of investigation due to concerns about mergers and acquisitions that would harm competition in the 27-nation bloc, and Britain’s antitrust watchdog began a separate review process last month.
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