The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is closely examining the competitive landscape for artificial intelligence (AI) companies, specifically investigating investments made by Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon.com.
FTC Orders Information from Key Players
On Thursday, the FTC issued orders to five companies, requesting details about recent AI investments and partnerships. The targeted companies include Microsoft and its partner OpenAI, as well as Alphabet and Amazon. Anthropic, an AI software company in which Alphabet and Amazon have invested, is also under scrutiny.
Ensuring Fair Competition and Innovation
FTC Chair Lina Khan emphasized the importance of maintaining a fair market and fostering innovation. She stated, “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.” Through this study, the FTC aims to evaluate whether dominant companies’ investments and partnerships may hinder fair competition and innovation.
While Anthropic declined to comment on the investigation, the other four targeted companies did not immediately respond.
Scrutinizing Partnerships and Investments
The FTC plans to thoroughly examine corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers to gain an in-depth understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive landscape. The companies involved have 45 days to provide a response.
- Microsoft’s Investment: Microsoft has reportedly invested $13 billion in OpenAI, known for developing AI software such as ChatGPT.
- Amazon’s Involvement: Amazon has announced an investment of up to $4 billion in Anthropic.
- Alphabet’s Contribution: Alphabet’s Google unit has shared plans to invest $2 billion in Anthropic and supports the operation of the Claude chatbot.
Wider Corporate Investments in AI Start-Ups
It’s important to note that there are various corporate investments in leading AI start-ups beyond the ones currently under investigation. For example:
- Nvidia and Oracle have invested in Cohere, a significant language model software company (LLM).
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise holds a stake in Aleph Alpha, a European LLM company.
- Hugging Face, an AI model marketplace, has received investments from a range of tech companies, including Google, Amazon, IBM, Salesforce, Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Qualcomm.
The investigation is ongoing, and the FTC aims to gain valuable insights into the AI industry’s competitive landscape and potential anticompetitive practices.
