British antitrust officials will check Microsoft for poaching Inflection AI employees

The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched the first stage of a review of Microsoft into the transfer of the majority of Inflection AI employees to the company. The antimonopoly review of the actions of the two companies can move to the second stage no later than September 11.

If the case moves to the second stage, this could pose a threat to the activities of Microsoft’s AI division. The last time an in-depth investigation into Microsoft’s actions was initiated by the British antitrust authority in 2022, when the software giant announced its intention to absorb game publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Then Microsoft had to restructure the deal and give up the rights to cloud gaming in the UK and some others markets. The CMA’s actions could have implications for Microsoft’s operations globally.

In 2022, DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman left the company, which by that time had already become part of Google, and founded the startup Inflection AI – some of the employees of the new company subsequently moved to Microsoft, and Mr. Suleyman himself headed the Microsoft AI division. UK and European regulators frequently examine AI partnerships and investments – the CMA previously expressed interest in Microsoft’s collaboration with Mistral AI, but concluded that it was not of a nature that would trigger an antitrust review.