FTC says partnerships like Microsoft-OpenAI raise antitrust concerns

The Federal Trade Commission said in a report released Friday that there are potential competition concerns in partnerships between big tech companies and generative AI developers — particularly Microsoft’s support for OpenAI and Amazon and partnerships of Alphabet/Google with Anthropic.

“The FTC report highlights how partnerships between large technology companies can create a gridlock, deprive start-ups of key AI inputs and reveal sensitive information that can harm fair competition,” a said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement. (President-elect Donald Trump plans to replace Khan as president.)

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

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