EU May Investigate Antitrust of Big Tech's AI Deals and Collaborations

According to TapTechNews on July 1, the AI deals and collaborations between Microsoft and OpenAI, as well as Google and Samsung, may face antitrust investigations by the European Union as the EU regulatory agency has found exclusivity clauses of these companies.

According to Reuters, Margrethe Vestager, the EU competition chief, said last Friday local time that the EU antitrust regulator will seek more third-party opinions. We have reviewed the responses and are now sending follow-up requests to ask for information about the agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI to understand whether certain exclusivity clauses will have a negative impact on competitors.

The report points out that this move by the EU highlights the global regulators' uneasiness about big tech companies using their advantages to enter new technological fields. Vestager sent out questionnaires about their AI partnerships to Microsoft, Google, Facebook, TikTok and other large tech companies in March this year.

Vestager also said this time, We are also requesting to provide information to better understand the impact of the arrangement reached between Google and Samsung to pre-install Gemini Nano (TapTechNews note: Google's Gemini model for mobile phones and other devices) on some Samsung devices.

In January this year, Google reached a multi-year agreement with Samsung to introduce its generative AI technology into Samsung Galaxy S24 series smartphones.

Vestager disclosed that she is currently investigating acquisi-hires behavior, that is, a company acquires another company mainly to obtain talents from the latter. Microsoft's acquisition of the start-up company Inflection in March this year for $650 million is an example, because Microsoft can use Inflection's model and hire most of its employees.