UK Clears Microsoft's Partnership With Inflection AI

Britain’s competition regulator cleared Microsoft’s hiring of some former staff of Inflection AI and its partnership with the startup, stating that the deal did not require a deeper investigation, Reuters reported.

Reuters reported that Microsoft agreed to pay around $650 million as part of the deal, which gave it access to Inflection’s AI models and allowed the startup to reimburse its investors. I Image: Inflection

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began a probe in July to examine if the deal might lead to competition concerns, given that both companies develop and supply consumer chatbots.

The CMA concluded that even before being bought, Inflection had a small portion of UK visits for chatbots and AI tools, and unlike its rivals, it could not significantly grow or maintain its chatbot user base.

In March, Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind, as the head of its newly created AI unit. Microsoft also hired several employees from Inflection, which Suleyman set up in 2022.

Reuters reported that Microsoft agreed to pay around $650 million as part of the deal, which gave it access to Inflection’s AI models and allowed the startup to reimburse its investors, including former Bill Gates and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.