Some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence will soon face more scrutiny from government regulators.
The Federal Trade Commission is to be checked Microsoftrelationship with OpenAIwhile Department of Justice will investigate whether Nvidia violated antitrust law, o reports.
The two agencies have spent the last six months negotiating how you can split the two investigations.
Of course, regulatory scrutiny surrounding AI is nothing recent for Microsoft. The Redmond, Washington-based giant has been eyeing the issue with regulators since news broke of its $10 billion megadeal with OpenAI – the largest round of startup funding in any sector in 2023.
According to press reports, the FTC probe will also examine Microsoft’s March agreement with AI overkill pay the startup $650 million to license its AI software and hire most of its employees.
The deal – seemingly structured to sidestep any regulatory hurdles since it is not officially an acquisition – once again demonstrated the tech titan’s insatiable appetite for all things AI-related.
What could this mean?
While details about each investigations remain sparse, the FTC is reportedly looking into each Microsoft and OpenAI’s conduct, while the Justice Department will investigate the behavior of Nvidia, whose AI chips dominate the market.
The probes may have an impact on AI startups. Both Nvidia and Microsoft have been huge investors in startups in the industry, and each may move away from such deals as regulators scrutinize their deals in the industry.
If that happens, enterprise funding could see one other lull. According to the evaluation, in May, artificial intelligence corporations obtained 40% of enterprise financing in the month, investing $12.5 billion in over 250 corporations. Crunch Base data.
xAI nearly half of this amount was collected in one round.