FTC Antitrust Investigation into Microsoft Advances Under Trump

Even under Joseph Biden, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began an antitrust investigation into Microsoft, which concerned various episodes of the latter’s activities. With the advent of Donald Trump, it has advanced, as Bloomberg sources familiar with the matter note.

The new FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, as the original source notes, is thus unwittingly demonstrating the agency’s desire to more tightly control the activities of tech giants. FTC experts have held several meetings with representatives of various companies and other interested parties since the beginning of the year.

Late last year, the FTC served Microsoft with an administrative subpoena, demanding information and documentation about its AI activities since 2016. The agency is interested in information about Microsoft’s data centers, problems with meeting demand for services, and software licensing practices. Antitrust officials will also try to determine whether Microsoft’s decision to reduce spending on its own AI projects after the OpenAI deal could have adversely affected competition. About a third of the FTC’s questions to Microsoft are related to AI.

The investigation will also try to determine whether Microsoft’s profits from other areas of activity could have given it an unfair advantage over other participants in the artificial intelligence systems market. The FTC is also interested in the structure of Microsoft’s expenses for the maintenance and development of its computing infrastructure. The practice of interaction between the agency and companies in such investigations implies that Microsoft will try to narrow the list of information that it must provide to the FTC. The investigation itself could drag on for years.