Announcement: CMA Halts Review of Microsoft’s OpenAI Tie-Up, Declares Not Meeting Criteria.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s competition watchdog, has announced its decision on whether Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI falls under the realm of business control. In summary, the nature of the relationship between these two companies does not meet the criteria for CMA to investigate under competition law.

CMA has been assessing Microsoft and OpenAI’s business relationship since late 2023, viewing it as potentially granting market dominance in the AI sector and possibly leading to future distortions. If it were to meet legal criteria, further investigation would ensue.

In a statement, CMA mentioned that during the assessment, OpenAI attempted to reduce its reliance solely on Microsoft for processing resources. This led CMA to believe that Microsoft does not exercise control over OpenAI, potentially leading to a merger. Thus, the evaluation was ultimately terminated.
Source: CMA

TLDR: CMA has decided that Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI does not warrant further investigation under competition law due to the lack of control by Microsoft over OpenAI.