“Monopoly” is more than just a well-known board game gone wild. In the real world, companies such as Live Nation and, of course, IT titans are accused of having monopolies.
When a single firm inside an industry has enough influence to dictate costs, leaving consumers with no choice, it becomes too powerful to be a single organization. Antitrust laws are intended to keep the market balanced and prevent corporations from forming monopolies, as a free market works best when there is competition.
Consider when Disney bought 21st Century Fox Studios. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) conducted an investigation and appraisal to determine if Disney’s acquisition would harm competition in the market. Ultimately, the DOJ determined it wouldn’t, and Disney was allowed to make the purchase. Amazon was also accused of cornering the market in a way that prevents competitors from selling, though the trial for this litigation isn’t set to take place until 2026.
These days, the tech industry has been stirring up antitrust lawsuits. With the expansion of artificial intelligence and machine learning, there’s a lot for corporations to gain by limiting competition. The government’s job is to ensure that other businesses and consumers aren’t being taken advantage of.
Did Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI violate antitrust laws?
The emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies in recent years, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, has prompted large internet corporations to invest heavily in them.
Microsoft, for example, paid $13 billion in OpenAI and began integrating its technology into the Bing search engine. Microsoft is unquestionably one of the most well-known names in the technology business, and it is not beyond being a little shady behind the scenes.
So, it might be of little surprise that Microsoft — along with Nvidia and OpenAI — is part of a federal investigation spearheaded by the DOJ to investigate possible collusion. While Nvidia is well known for its graphics cards, it’s also working diligently on AI hardware. Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking the lead on investigating OpenAI and Microsoft.
When the FTC initiated its investigation, Chair Lina M. Khan stated, “Our study will shed light on whether investments and partnerships pursued by dominant companies risk distorting innovation and undermining fair competition.” It’s worth mentioning that the United States has been a little slow to regulate AI, falling far behind the European Union’s efforts in implementing AI legislation. Time will tell whether Microsoft structured its partnerships with AI firms and ownership in OpenAI in such a way that it avoids antitrust investigation.