Microsoft, Amazon AI deals get deeper U.K. antitrust scrutiny
BNN Bloomberg
Amazon.com Inc’s US$4 billion investment into artificial intelligence firm Anthropic is facing the prospect of an in-depth U.K. antitrust probe, a week after the agency warned of Big Tech’s “interconnected web” of deals into the booming market.
The Competition and Markets Authority said Wednesday it was gathering information from market players to determine whether the collaboration between the two firms threatens competition in the U.K.
It also said it was looking at Microsoft Corp.’s partnership with Mistral and Inflection AI, a start up that lost its chief executive and most of its staff to Microsoft last month.
“We will assess, objectively and impartially, whether each of these three deals fall within U.K. merger rules and, if they do, whether they have any impact on competition in the U.K.,” said Joel Bamford, executive director of mergers at the CMA.
