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Google Asks Feds To Kill Microsoft’s Cloud Hosting Deal With OpenAI


Big tech companies have had a rocky relationship with federal regulators in recent years, and politicians from both parties have found reasons to try to weaken their power and influence. Google is currently fighting a recent court ruling that found it illegal to search monopoly and must abandon its Chrome browser.The search giant has been aggressively defending itself in this case, arguing that it has strong competition in the industry from the likes of OpenAI.

But the irony is that the same companies are happy to cry foul to regulators about concerns about unfair or anti-competitive behavior when it’s in their favor. with to provide cloud hosting for ChatGPT. It claims the deal limits competition and could potentially impose higher costs on developers who want it have used the ChatGPT APIs in their products.Apparently, the tech companies believe that anti-competitive behavior exists in the industry, they just don’t.

The information first reports on the news.

Microsoft has invested more than $13 billion in OpenAI in exchange for access to the company’s advanced models, as well as serving as its exclusive cloud provider through Azure. is giving OpenAI money that will eventually go back into its own coffers. In addition to the exclusive hosting agreement, Microsoft is also entitled to 75% of OpenAI’s profits until it reimburses its investment and will then still retain his equity in the company.

It’s the FTC is already being investigated by Microsoft on its cloud hosting contracts The regulatory agency is looking into claims that Microsoft charges customers more to use its suite of services, such as Office 365, if they use another hosting provider, such as Google Cloud : Of course, Microsoft software is ubiquitous in the enterprise world. If developers have to use Microsoft Azure to access ChatGPT, it will only make it more difficult Using hosting providers: Google would certainly welcome the opportunity to host ChatGPT, or at least to do so.

In general, the United States prohibits any conduct that is intended to create a monopoly and harm competition and consumer welfare. In particular, the Clayton Act of 1914 prohibits tying arrangements in which exclusive contracts force customers to purchase one product in order to obtain another. contracts reduce competition.

However, in recent years, tech companies have been able to argue against the splits, pointing to the fact that many of their services are offered for free or as a convenience to consumers, and thus to consumers. welfare has not suffered. Under Biden, the administration has taken a very different stance on the matter. In the case of Amazon, FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan argues that while Amazon has historically kept prices low, it has done so in a way that has pushed out competitors. for example asking sellers on its platform to offer it the best price.

Google itself has come under intense scrutiny over an exclusive arrangement with Apple that pays it tens of billions of dollars a year to be Safari’s default search engine.Smaller rivals such as DuckDuckGo have said that it makes it almost impossible to compete, because changing the default search engine is difficult and overwhelming for everyday people, the irony is not hard to spot;

There is optimism in Silicon Valley that the new administration will take a more liberal approach to technology, especially as President-elect Trump fills his cabinet with Silicon Valley leaders believed to have biased search results against conservatives.



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