Microsoft's Financial Investment In OpenAI Is Considered By The European Union Competition Authority

Head of EU antitrust, Margrethe Vestager. (photo: x @vestager)

JAKARTA - EU competition regulators said on Tuesday January 9, that Microsoft's financial support for ChatGPT maker OpenAI may be subject to EU merger rules. They confirmed similar warnings from their UK colleagues in December 2023.

The US giant software company, which last year committed to investing more than $10 billion into OpenAI in a non-voting position on board of directors, said it had no ownership of part of OpenAI.

The European Commission previously said that it was following these developments closely.

"The European Commission is examining whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI may be covered under EU Merger Regulations," EU executives, acting as EU competition watchdogs, said in a statement.

They said some of the agreed deals between big digital market players and developers and generative artificial intelligence providers were being investigated due to their impact on market dynamics. They did not name the companies.

The Commission on Tuesday also gave interested parties until March 11 to provide feedback on cyber competition and generative artificial intelligence.

They also sent requests for information to several major digital companies about the two topics.

"We invite businesses and experts to inform us of any competition issues they may see in the industry, while also monitoring artificial intelligence partnerships to ensure that they are unfairly changing market dynamics," said EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.