The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are reportedly starting the process of antitrust investigations for Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA, according to the New York Times. 

While the DOJ and FTC have yet to officially announce their plans, several reputable publications have reported that this information comes from verified sources familiar with the matter. It’s expected that the deal between the two departments may be finalized in a matter of days, at which point more information should be revealed. 

It was reported that the DOJ will be investigating NVIDIA, while the FTC investigates Microsoft and OpenAI.

Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI since 2019, and to date it has supplied the company with $13 billion dollars. As a result, OpenAI’s products have become very tightly integrated across Microsoft’s product line and is what powers Microsoft Copilot. 

NVIDIA, on the other hand, has dominated the market for GPUs, which are integral to generative AI as these chips are what AI workloads are run on. According to John Peddie Research, NVIDIA holds an 88% market share on graphics cards, as of this month.

This follows FTC’s January announcement that it would be more critical of deals in the tech sector related to AI. “We’re scrutinizing whether these ties enable dominant firms to exert undue influence or gain privileged access in ways that could undermine fair competition,” said Lina Khan, chair of the FTC, said at the time. 

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