The Microsoft logo is displayed on a smartphone screen and the Amazon logo in the background in Athens, Greece on October 5, 2023.
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UK antitrust regulators are seeking views on Microsoft and Amazon’s partnership with smaller AI model makers.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority said on Wednesday it was opening an invitation to comment for interested third parties to give their views on the major AI partnership between Microsoft and AI company Mistral’s Mistral. France, and Amazon and US startup Anthropic, as well as Microsoft’s hiring of former AI employees. employee from Inflection AI.
The CMA is seeking comments from interested parties before May 9, trying to investigate whether the arrangements between these companies qualify for a merger.
The invitation to comment is the first part of the information gathering process before UK regulators launch the formal Phase 1 review. The CMA notes that the invitation to comment does not initiate a formal review process State 1.
Microsoft disputes the notion that its deal with Mistral and the hiring from Inflection constitute a merger.
In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said: “We remain confident that normal business practices such as recruiting talent or investing partially in an AI startup promote competition and unlike a merger.”
“We will provide the UK Competition and Markets Authority with the information necessary to complete our inquiries expeditiously,” the spokesperson added.
An Amazon spokesperson said the CMA’s review of the type of partnership the company agreed with Anthropic was “unprecedented”.
“Unlike partnerships between other AI startups and big tech companies, our collaboration with Anthropic includes a limited investment, no investment,” an Amazon spokesperson said. give Amazon a board director or observer role and continue to let Anthropic run its models across multiple cloud providers.” .
“By investing in Anthropic, which just released new, best-in-class Claude 3 models, we’re helping the general AI segment become more competitive than it was a few years ago. And, customers are happy We are excited about the opportunities this partnership is providing them. We are confident that the facts speak for themselves and hope the CMA agrees to resolve this matter expeditiously.”
This breaking news story is being updated.
Correction: The article has been updated to reflect the CMA is seeking views on a partnership between Microsoft and Mistral as well as a separate agreement between Amazon and Anthropic.
