United Kingdom: Closed consultation on partnerships between Amazon and Anthropic, and Microsoft’s hiring of former employees and related arrangements with Inflection AI

On 9 May 2024, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) closed its public consultation on its assessment of Microsoft’s hiring of former employees and related arrangements with Inflection AI. In particular, the CMA seeks views on whether the partnership and other arrangements may result in the creation of relevant merger situations and the potential impact of these deals on competition in the UK. The consultation follows the report published by the CMA on 11 April 2024 on competition in the markets for AI Foundation Models, specifically, concerns that partnerships involving key players could exacerbate existing market power positions through the Foundation Models' value chain.