Report: FTC to Move Forward with Microsoft Antitrust Probe

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will proceed with its antitrust probe of Microsoft despite the change in presidential administrations. The report cites multiple sources.

“We are working cooperatively with the agency,” a terse Microsoft statement notes.

The FTC’s initial investigation began last year under former chairperson Lisa Khan and was outed by multiple reports in Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and The New York Times. And now it looks like it’s going to continue under current chair Andrew Ferguson, with the FTC continuing to meet with Microsoft and other companies, and gather information.

The FTC is investigating Microsoft’s licensing practices in cloud computing, its work with AI including how it trains models, and its partnership with OpenAI, which the software giant never revealed to regulators before investing in the company.

The FTC has several other Big Tech cases in front of it, too, most notably lawsuits against Amazon and Meta.