UK CMA assesses potential investigation into partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI

Last Friday (8), the UK Antitrust Regulatory Agency announced that it was considering the possibility of opening an investigation into the collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT. This is the second time in a year that the CMA has assessed the performance of US technology companies.

Situation as assessed by regulatory authority

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is interested in determining whether a “takeover” has resulted from the collaboration. Furthermore, the Commission assesses whether the cooperation with OpenAI has led to the creation of a merger situation.

“Recently, there have been several developments in the governance of OpenAI, some of which involve Microsoft.”, CMA report according to Forbes Brazil. The Commission further states: “In light of these developments, the CMA is now issuing an ITC (Invitation for Comment) to determine whether the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, including recent developments, has resulted in a relevant merger situation and, if so, a potential impact on competition.”

The CMA highlighted that the growth in the use of artificial intelligence technology is unprecedented in economic history. And, according to Forbes Brasil, CMA, powerful developments like ChatGPT technology indicate the importance of investing and working on these technologies that are changing the Internet.

Last month, Microsoft said it had committed to invest about US$10 million in OpenAI in order to guarantee a seat on the board of the company that owns ChatGPT, even though it would not have direct voting rights. . According to Forbes Brazil, the move is due to the situation OpenAI’s board was experiencing.

According to the InfoMoney portal, sources close to the matter say that Microsoft owns 49% of the company, while OpenAI has a non-profit parent company that owns 2%.

_{Collaboration between OpenAI and Microsoft draws attention from UK regulator (Photo: Reproduction/Ascannio/Shutterstock/Época Negócios)}

OpenAI connection with Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Brad Smith said “The only thing that has changed is that Microsoft will now have a non-voting observer on the OpenAI board, which is very different for an acquisition like Google buying DeepMind in the UK.” Smith said Microsoft will work in partnership and cooperation with the Competition and Markets Authority, and OpenAI was not available for comment at the time of writing this article.

According to the Infomoney portal, the Microsoft representative’s observer status allows him to participate in OpenAI board meetings, and also get access to confidential materials and matters, however, on the other hand, the representative does not have the right to vote on candidates. Boards.

Featured photo: ACM assesses whether partnership is strategy for potential merger (Reproduction/Bloomberg/Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/O Globo)