European Union antitrust regulators have concluded that Microsoft’s $13 billion investment in OpenAI is not an acquisition, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, suggesting the deal avoids a formal European investigation that would have faced tougher remedial measures against the US tech giant.
EU regulators said in January that the deal could be subject to the region’s integration rules. Microsoft, which has no voting rights on OpenAI’s board of directors, said late last year that it does not own any shares in the ChatGPT maker.
But Microsoft is not out of the woods yet, with EU competition enforcers still examining partnerships between large digital market players and generative AI developers and providers, which could lead to an intrusive and lengthy investigation into their market power.
“The European Commission is closely monitoring OpenAI’s controls ahead of recent incidents involving OpenAI’s management,” an EU spokesperson told Reuters in an email.
“We are examining whether Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI can be reviewed under EU merger regulations.”
Microsoft declined to comment, while OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI has come under informal scrutiny elsewhere.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority is considering launching an investigation to determine whether the deal affects competition between British companies, while the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are said to be considering investigations.
To avoid such scrutiny, Microsoft is actively seeking partnerships with other artificial intelligence companies Earlier this year, it announced a deal with French startup Mistral AI.
Bloomberg News first reported the development on Wednesday.
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