Microsoft was just revealed last week to be subject to an extensive anti-monopoly investigation. This week, news broke that OpenAI is investigating “lying down” as a result. It is alleged that US regulators are investigating OpenAI's deal with Microsoft as a result.

On Tuesday, December 3, EST, the tech media The Information quoted participants and people familiar with the discussions as saying that the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stepped up antitrust investigations against Microsoft, and FTC officials have been asking Microsoft's competitors about the impact of Microsoft's transactions and product range in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

Specifically, the FTC is inquiring about a deal between Microsoft and OpenAI, which allows Microsoft, a cloud computing giant, to obtain an exclusive license to run the OpenAI model on its cloud servers, while also being able to share part of OpenAI's revenue. A person familiar with the matter said that the FTC also asked Microsoft's competitors how Microsoft sells its CoPilot software integrated into OpenAI, and how to resell OpenAI's model to developers on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.

These issues mean that the FTC is investigating whether Microsoft's dominance in the cloud computing market gave the company an unfair advantage in selling AI software.

According to the report, the FTC's extensive investigation into Microsoft began last year. At that time, in addition to Microsoft, they also learned about rivals in the cloud computing field, such as Google, Amazon, and Oracle, through voluntary interviews. Earlier this year, the FTC launched a separate investigation into the deal between OpenAI and Microsoft and similar deals, including Google and Amazon's investment in OpenAI's biggest competitor Anthropic. As of last month, the FTC has received approval from FTC Chairman Lina Khan and other commissioners to begin sending civil investigation requests (CIDs), or legal documents that can be executed in court, to Microsoft and its customers and competitors.

Under US federal law, the FTC can use CID when investigating whether a company has committed so-called “unfair or fraudulent acts or practices.” David Balto, an antitrust lawyer in Washington and former FTC assistant director, said that after starting to release the CID, the FTC usually takes several months to gather information before deciding whether to file an antitrust lawsuit. In other words, if the news that the FTC has investigated Microsoft through CID is true, it will take several months for the FTC to determine whether it will sue Microsoft.

Wall Street News mentioned that Bloomberg reported last Wednesday that the FTC has launched an extensive antitrust investigation against Microsoft, covering all aspects of cloud computing, software licensing, cybersecurity, and AI products. This action was taken after more than a year of informal dialogue with Microsoft's competitors and business partners. Law enforcement officials formulated hundreds of pages of detailed requirements to force Microsoft to provide relevant information. The specific request has already been sent to Microsoft.

According to the report, one key focus of the current investigation is that Microsoft bundles popular office productivity and security software with cloud products. Part of the investigation focused on Microsoft's security software Microsoft Entra ID, formerly known as Azure Active Directory, which helps users authenticate when logging into cloud-based software.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's Deputy General Counsel Rima Alily said on social media this Tuesday that ironically, almost a week after the media revealed that almost a week after the FTC issued a request for information to Microsoft, Microsoft still hasn't received the CID issued by the FTC. Alily said she had filed a complaint with the FTC on behalf of Microsoft, questioning whether FTC officials had improperly leaked confidential information to Bloomberg.