The Federal Trade Commission, along with European Union and UK regulators, are investigating the investments and partnerships of major tech companies in AI startups.

Companies under the scanner include Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Google for their dealings with OpenAI and Anthropic.

The investigations are aimed at understanding the impact on competition, potential antitrust violations, and any distortion of innovation and fair competition in the AI industry.

The focus will be on product releases, market share, competition, and sales growth, especially in generative AI.

Microsoft's undisclosed investment in OpenAI, involving compute resources and exclusivity rights, is drawing specific attention.

Antitrust advocates have praised these investigations, referring to the deals as quasi-mergers.

The companies have been granted 45 days to respond to the inquiries.