The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that it has ordered OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Anthropic to provide information about recent investments and partnerships involving generative AI companies and cloud service providers.
The FTC said in a statement that the order is part of an investigation to “examine corporate partnerships and investments with AI providers and improve internal understanding of these relationships and their impact on the competitive environment.” .
The agency said companies have 45 days from the date of receiving the order to respond.
Earlier this month, Politico reported that the Justice Department and FTC are discussing agencies that could investigate ChatGPT maker OpenAI for antitrust reasons, including the AI company's partnership with Microsoft.
Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI has come under antitrust scrutiny after the software giant pledged to invest more than $10 billion in OpenAI last year.
