US Regulators Target The AI Industry, Open Investigations Against NVIDIA, Microsoft & OpenAI

NVIDIA and other AI giants are being investigated by the FTC & DOJ as US regulators open antitrust investigations within the booming businesses.

Well, it looks like the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have set their sights on the AI industry for the next layer of "scrutiny" as both departments now open up separate investigations to determine the conduct of involved parties.

According to a report by Reuters, it is disclosed that the US Department of Justice will look into the possibility of anti-trust law violations in NVIDIA's AI business, while the FTC will be responsible for looking into the partnership of Microsoft and OpenAI.

It's no surprise that authorities are investigating a rapidly growing market sector, and the involvement of both the DOJ and the FTC shows that regulators are taking matters into their own hands. Although NVIDIA hasn't violated antitrust laws yet, the investigation can open up new cases, similar to what happened in 2019 when the regulators went against Big Tech firms for supposed business violations.

Microsoft has a long history with regulators, especially in the case of the Activision merger and how the long antitrust fiasco finally ended in favor of Microsoft. Reuters reports that the FTC would look into Microsoft's OpenAI and Inflection AI investments. When discussing the collaboration with Inflection AI, Microsoft revealed that they have complied with all legal obligations.

For a quick rundown, the FTC initiated the investigation into the AI industry in January, when the regulator explored AI-related practices of OpenAI, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Anthropic. Similarly, recently, former OpenAI employees issued a public letter expressing concerns about the rapidly growing AI markets and how they have seen a "lack of regulations." These factors have acted as a catalyst for the recent decision by the DOJ and FTC and potentially opened new disputes and fiascos, given that antitrust laws are violated by the involved firms.

The progress in the AI industry is quite similar to the "dot-com" boom we witnessed in the 20th century. With companies like NVIDIA and others seeing massive investment inflows, regulators are only specific about coming in to investigate mishaps. It would be interesting to see how DOJ and FTC potentially change the dynamics of the markets.