Five companies received compulsory orders from the Federal Trade Commission as part of an investigation into their direct investments and partnerships with generative artificial intelligence and cloud service providers.
The commission announced Thursday that it launched an inquiry involving Alphabet, the publicly traded entity of Google, as well as Amazon, Anthropic PBC, Microsoft and OpenAI to better understand their relationships with AI companies and their implications.
The FTC unanimously voted to launch the Section 6(b) inquiry in light of multibillion-dollar partnerships between Anthropic and Amazon, Anthropic and Google and Microsoft and OpenAI.
The agency seeks to understand their strategic rationale; practical implications including for products, governance and oversight rights; and competitive dynamics.
The companies have 45 days upon receipt of the order to respond to FTC.