US towards antitrust investigations on Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI

The two US antitrust agencies agreed to split responsibility for the artificial intelligence sector, giving the Federal Trade Commission the green light to open an investigation into Microsoft Corp.'s relationship with OpenAI, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Justice Department will investigate whether Nvidia Corp. has violated antitrust law and will retain oversight of Alphabet's Google.

The agencies reached the agreement in recent days after more than six months of negotiations, sources report. The agreement gives each agency the authority to open an antitrust investigation into the company's conduct and recent related agreements.

As part of this, according to sources, the FTC opened an investigation into whether Microsoft failed to properly notify the antitrust agencies of its agreement with Inflection AI. In March, the Redmond, Washington state-based software giant agreed to pay the start-up $650 million to license its artificial intelligence software and hired most of Inflection's staff.

The Department of Justice and the FTC jointly enforce US antitrust laws and work together to coordinate which agency will investigate mergers and anti-competitive behaviour. High-profile issues, such as those involving Google, have already caused bitter disputes between the agencies. The New York Times reported the news.