News Summary

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded its investigation into Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI, the company behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT. Despite Microsoft’s significant financial backing of OpenAI, the CMA determined that Microsoft does not exert de facto control over the AI firm, thus not meeting the threshold for a formal inquiry under UK merger rules. The decision follows previous concerns regarding the CMA’s leadership and its approach to fostering business confidence. Microsoft, OpenAI’s largest financial supporter, recently joined a funding round that valued the company at $157 billion. Although the CMA has decided against a more detailed investigation, it noted that this should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the partnership’s competitive implications.