U.K. regulators are opening an investigation into Microsoft's (MSFT) hiring of former Inflection AI employees and related agreements with the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:artificial intelligence (AI) start-up.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Tuesday it is examining how🐈 the moves by Microsoft could affect competition in the AI market and whether they effectively created a merger.

Microso🍌ft Reported🥀ly Hired Inflection Staff Amid $650 Million Deal

Microsoft 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:reportedly paid $650 million to license Inflection's technology earlier this year, as well as hired senior members of the Inflection team, drawing scrutiny of the agreement amid concerns it could violate antitrust rules for 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

The company 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:announced that it hired Inflection co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and Inflection Chief Scientist Karén Simonyan to join its AI unit in March. Microsoft presented this as a hiring decision to build its AI unit,✨ rather than an acquisition scenario.

The tech giant reported that "several members of the Inflection team have chosen to join Mustafa and Karén at Microsoft," including "some of the most accomplished AI engineers, researchers, and builders in the world."

Inflection said the Microsoft hiring was an "important change," and announced during this time that its Inflection-2.5 AI model would be hosted on Microsoft Azure.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Investopedia the company is "confident that the hiring of talent promotes competition and should not be treated as a merger." They said Microsoft "will provide the UK Competition and Markets Authority with the information it needs to complete its inquiries expeditiously."

UK Regulators Latest To Investigate Microsoft

The CMA is the latest regulator to announce an investigation in๊to the relationship between Microsoft and Inflection.

The 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also reportedly investigating Microso✃ft's actions with I♋nflection AI to determine if they violated antitrust rules for M&A.

The CMA is 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:already examining Microsoft and Amazon's (AMZN) AI partnerships for impacts o✅n competition.

Microsoft has 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:established itself as an early AI leader through its ongoing 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:partnership with ChatGPT 🅷;maker OpenAI, which has drawn the attention of competition regulators as well.

Microsoft shares were little changed following the news and have gained nearly 18% since the start of the year.

UPDATE—July 17, 2024: This article has been updated to include a statement from Microsoft.