FTC says partnerships like Microsoft-OpenAI raise antitrust concerns

The Federal Trade Commission said in a staff report issued Friday that there are potential competitive issues in partnerships between big tech companies and generative AI developers — specifically, Microsoft’s backing of OpenAI and Amazon and Alphabet/Google’s partnerships with Anthropic.

“The FTC’s report sheds light on how partnerships by big tech firms can create lock-in, deprive start-ups of key AI inputs, and reveal sensitive information that can undermine fair competition,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement. (President-elect Donald Trump plans to replace Khan as chair.)

The report focuses on Microsoft, Amazon, and Google’s roles as cloud service providers working with OpenAI and Anthropic; among other things, it suggests that these partnerships could affect access to computing resources and engineering talent, increase switching costs for companies working with AI developers, and might give cloud providers unique access to sensitive information.

Microsoft’s deputy general counsel Rima Alaily told Bloomberg that the company’s partnership with OpenAI has “enabled one of the most successful AI startups in the world and spurred a wave of unprecedented technology investment and innovation in the industry.”