US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to investigate Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA for alleged antitrust violations

It has been reported that the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are planning to launch an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA due to their influence in the AI industry. The Department of Justice and the FTC have reached an agreement allowing the investigation to proceed, and it is expected to be finalized in early June.

US Clears Way for Antitrust Inquiries of Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/05/technology/nvidia-microsoft-openai-antitrust-doj-ftc.html

US regulators to open antitrust probes into Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/06/us-regulators-to-open-antitrust-probes-into-nvidia-microsoft-and-openai.html

The FTC will be leading the investigation into OpenAI and Microsoft, while the Department of Justice will be leading the investigation into NVIDIA, according to people familiar with the matter. The investigations will focus on the conduct of each company, rather than on mergers and acquisitions.

Microsoft is making huge investments in OpenAI, announcing a long-term partnership in January 2023 that promises billions of dollars in investments.

Microsoft announces long-term partnership with OpenAI, investing hundreds of billions of yen - GIGAZINE

NVIDIA also holds the largest share of the AI semiconductor market and is growing rapidly as generative AI becomes more widespread. In June 2024, its market capitalization finally exceeded $3 trillion (about 468 trillion yen), surpassing Apple to become the world's second largest public company.

NVIDIA's market capitalization exceeds $3 trillion, surpassing Apple to become the second largest in the world after Microsoft - GIGAZINE

Thus, Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA are riding the wave of the AI boom, but they are under scrutiny from the FTC and the Department of Justice.

NVIDIA had been planning to acquire Arm Holdings, a semiconductor company under SoftBank, in 2022, but the FTC filed a lawsuit to block the acquisition, and as a result, the acquisition agreement was not reached.

Federal Trade Commission files lawsuit seeking to block NVIDIA's acquisition of Arm - GIGAZINE

In addition, the FTC investigated OpenAI in July 2023 for 'alleged misinformation generated by ChatGPT that harmed consumers.' In addition, the FTC is investigating Microsoft's huge investments in OpenAI and Amazon and Google's huge investments in Anthropic in January 2024.

US authorities launch investigation into OpenAI after ChatGPT generates 'derogatory and misleading false descriptions of individuals' - GIGAZINE

According to the American daily newspaper The New York Times, some US federal lawmakers are frustrated that the US is lagging behind the EU in regulating AI, and are calling for specific new regulations, including submitting a bill to regulate AI . The New York Times pointed out that the FTC's repeated investigations of AI-related companies are due to growing pressure for AI regulation in the US.

In response to inquiries from The New York Times, the FTC, the Department of Justice, and NVIDIA declined to comment. Microsoft and OpenAI also did not respond to requests for comment.