FTC is reportedly looking into Microsoft-OpenAI collaboration

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) ended 1.0% up on Friday even after a report that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is looking into its investment in OpenAI.

FTC hasn’t launched a formal investigation yet

Anonymous sources told Bloomberg today that the agency is examining whether billions of dollar that Microsoft has poured into the company behind ChatGPT violates antitrust laws.

But it’s a preliminary inquiry for now and the FTC has not launched an all-out investigation into the said collaboration, they added.

A spokesperson for the U.S. regulator refrained from commenting on the Bloomberg report.

The news arrives more than a month after the tech behemoth reported its financial results for the first quarter that handily topped Street estimates. $MSFT is currently up more than 50% versus the start of 2023.  

Microsoft didn’t report OpenAI transaction to FTC

Note that Microsoft did not report its investment in OpenAI to the Federal Trade Commission because the artificial intelligence company is a non-profit.

The transaction did not amount to ownership of the ChatGPT maker either. According to Frank Shaw – a spokesman for Microsoft Corp:

On Friday, the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom was also reported studying whether the Microsoft-OpenAI partnership hurts competition in the region. OpenAI has received some $13 billion in investment from the Washington-based multinational.