The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will not move forward with investigating Microsoft’s multi-year partnership with French start-up Mistral AI, after seeking views from interested parties regarding the deal in April.
In a statement, the authority explained Microsoft’s dealing with Mistral AI does not qualify for investigation under its merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2022.
The CMA previously expressed concerns that the companies’ tie-up could result in the creation of a relevant merger situation and therefore threaten competition in the AI sector.
Microsoft’s collaboration with Mistral AI was announced at MWC Barcelona 2024, a deal which involves a $16 million investment in the start-up. The agreement also allows Mistral AI to use Microsoft’s supercomputing infrastructure and make its models available on the Azure cloud platform.
In a statement seen by Reuters, the CMA concluded it “does not believe that Microsoft has acquired material influence over Mistral AI as a result of the partnership and therefore does not qualify for investigation”.
After meeting with team members of Mistral AI in April, European Commission’s EVP in charge of market competition Margrethe Vestager expressed that “we need vibrant competition in AI, now”.
UK’s CMA also targeted Microsoft’s links with US-based Inflection AI, as well as a partnership between Amazon and Anthropic. It has not yet provided an update on those partnerships.
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