U.S. FTC queries AI deals by Amazon, OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic

Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. must provide information to the US Federal Trade Commission on their investments and partnerships with artificial intelligence startups Anthropic PBC and OpenAI Inc. as part of an agency study announced Thursday.

The antitrust and consumer protection agency said it sent subpoenas to the companies to gather information on how the development of AI is impacting the competitive landscape. The inquiry focuses on more than US$19 billion in investments by Microsoft, Amazon and Google, in a series of transactions that cemented alliances between the world’s cloud services giants with the leading providers of artificial intelligence software.

Antitrust enforcers across the world have become concerned as many of the most promising AI startups now depend heavily on the old guard of dominant tech companies for their financing and infrastructure needs.

In comments during a public workshop Thursday, FTC Chair Lina Khan said the agency is closely monitoring the industry and warned that AI companies “cannot use claims of innovation as cover for law breaking.”