The United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will not investigate Microsoft's partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Mistral AI.
“The CMA has decided that Microsoft Corporation's partnership with Mistral AI does not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2022,” the regulator said in an update on Friday (May 17).
The regulator said on April 24 that it was considering whether the two companies' partnership could reduce competition in any UK market and invited interested parties to submit comments by May 9.
The same day, the CMA issued a press release saying it was seeking feedback on the Microsoft and Mistral AI partnership, the Amazon and Anthropic partnership, and the hiring of former employees from Microsoft's Inflection AI.
The regulator added that the requests were the first part of its information-gathering process and that it had “made no conclusions” about whether the three deals raised competition concerns.
“The CMA has recently committed to expanding the use of its merger control powers as part of its recent foundation models update,” Joel Bamford, executive director of mergers at the CMA, said in an April 24 press release. “While we remain open-minded, and have not drawn any conclusions, our goal is to better understand the complex partnerships and arrangements at play.”
After receiving comments on the Microsoft and Mistral AI partnership, the regulator announced on Thursday (May 16) that it would launch an inquiry into the merger and then announced its “not found to be viable” decision on Friday.
The CMA has not provided an update on its Amazon/Anthropic Partnership merger inquiry or its Microsoft/Inflection AI inquiry since its April 24 announcement that it was seeking comment on those deals.
PYMNTS reported on April 24 that some experts warned that tougher antitrust rulings in these cases could change how large corporations interact with emerging AI firms, fueling enthusiasm for new partnerships. slows down and inhibits the pace of innovation.
Ryan M. Younk, a senior research faculty member at the American Institute for Economic Research think tank, told PYMNTS: “A direct order that prohibits exclusive partnerships or direct partnerships between generative AI companies and large tech companies It creates substantial barriers that make access to capital more difficult and therefore slow down their growth.