Microsoft and Google’s artificial intelligence deals attract the attention of the European Commission…

Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI and Google’s agreement to install its generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) feature on Samsung devices have come under new antitrust scrutiny from the European Commission (EC).

Margrethe Vestager, Vice-President of the European Commission for Competition Policy (shown in the photo) said it would send follow-up questions to Microsoft and OpenAI under antitrust laws “to understand whether certain exclusivity clauses may have an adverse effect on competition.”

A Microsoft representative said Mobile world live (MWL), that it is “ready to answer any additional questions the European Commission may have.”

The competition regulator also sent requests for information “to better understand the impact of Google’s agreement with Samsung to pre-install the small Gemini nano model on certain Samsung devices.”

In April, the EC stated that Microsoft $13 billion The investment in OpenAI did not violate European Union mergers and acquisitions rules because OpenAI did not acquire control of OpenAI.

“We appreciate the European Commission’s thorough analysis and conclusion that Microsoft’s investment and partnership with OpenAI does not give Microsoft control over the company,” Microsoft said in a statement. MWL.

Vestager added that the European Commission “will monitor the relationships between all key players in this rapidly evolving sector, including Microsoft and OpenAI.”

She said the European Commission is also concerned that partnerships between big tech companies in the field of artificial intelligence could make it more difficult for smaller AI developers to reach users, which is why the European Commission is demanding more information from Google about its partnership with Samsung.

She noted that the EC also monitors takeover cases where a company acquires another company, mainly for its employees, citing Microsoft and Inflection AI as the main examples.

“The commercialization of artificial intelligence and its powerful tools will be led by a few companies that already have a lot of market power,” Vestager said. “So we remain vigilant.”