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Microsoft’s $ 13 billion investment in Openai cleared the British competition regulator, a few weeks after the start-up of artificial intelligence hit a new partnership with SoftBank, which reduces its reliance on the American major technological company for its computer infrastructure.
The Competition and Market Administration on Wednesday said the contract did not qualify for a more formal investigation whether the partnership was to connect two companies. It was found that there was no “change in control” that gave Microsoft “de facto control over the opening”.
The regulator added that “a recent achievement in partnership that reduces the opening relying on Microsoft to calculate” – an obvious reference to the new AI Infrastructure Project Openi and SoftBank View – “In particular” he contributed to his decision.
However, Joel Bamford, the CMA CEO for merging, said that the decision “should not be read as a partnership that receives a clean health account on potential concerns for competition.” The CMA -e decision noted that Microsoft Still, he had a “high level of material influence” due to commercial opening policy.
The announcement comes with CMA faced intense supervision In recent months, the Government has shown that it has promoted growth and does not suffocate innovation in the UK. The ministers suddenly overthrew the chair of the Marcus Bokkerink agency last month, replacing him with former Amazon UK chief Doug Gurr.
CMA announced in December 2023 to collect information on whether to launch a formal investigation into the Microsoft Agreement, followed by a similar probe by the EU.
Last June, the EU cleaned the binding according to its rules for the control of the merger. However, Margrethe Vestager, the then Block Competition Chief, warned at the time that “The story is not over” While the EU examined other aspects of the relations between the two companies, in what was considered a potential introduction to the antitrust probe.
In a market study Since January 2025, the Federal Commission for Trade has said that contracts such as Microsoft’s and Openi and expressed antitrust problems.
“[P]The artistic company of large technological companies can create a lock, deprive of the beginners of key AI entrances and discover sensitive information that can undermine fair competition, “said former FTC president Lina Khan.
Microsoft is the largest investor in OpenSupporting a company with more than $ 13 billion. The original contract of Microsoft has approved an exclusive license for Openi’s AI research in exchange for Microsoft, offering openii supercomputing resources needed to build powerful AI models.
But the relationship of companies He became more tiring In the past 18 months, with both of them reducing mutual reliance for AI systems and a set of infrastructure that drives them.
CMA is the first regulator to consider Microsoft’s connection with Openi after the launch committee overturned the executive director Sam Altman in November 2023. Just to restart it a few days later. Microsoft, who advocated for Altman’s return to the helm of the company, finished after the incident after the incident, ended up taking the place of an observer who did not vote.
CMA announced that it was initially related to that the partnership could give Microsoft’s control over Openi’s business. Following controller control, Microsoft also gave up his observer At Openai’s Board in 2024.
“Our opening partnership and its continuous evolution promote competition, innovation and responsible development of AI, and we welcome the conclusion of CMA, after a careful and careful considering commercial reality, to close its investigation,” Microsoft said.
Openii said he “acts in a highly competitive and rapidly developing industry, and we are focused on the development of AI that is safe and useful for everyone.”
In the LinkedIn post, Bamford acknowledged the “extremely prolonged” length of time between the start of the CMA -EI Decision on Wednesday, at a time when the agency was under the pressure of the ministers and the manager of the industry to move faster and predict in their merging reviews.
He blamed the complexity and change of the nature of partnership between major technological groups and AI start-up companies for delay.
“We are not blind in the length of the time that the investigation has taken over – especially given the reforms we have recently launched, which will significantly accelerate and simplify the coupling process in the UK,” he said. “We know that tempo is important for business trust and investment.”
