On December 11, Google officially made a request to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), hoping to terminate the exclusive cloud service agreement between Microsoft and OpenAI.

The matter began with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s recent investigation into Microsoft’s business practices. During the investigation, the FTC asked Google and other technology companies about Microsoft’s business practices.

After the FTC asked Google about Microsoft’s business practices, Google officially made this request to the FTC.

Google’s doubts about the cooperation between Microsoft and OpenAI have been laid early.

The cooperation between Microsoft and OpenAI began in 2019. At that time, Microsoft invested US$1 billion in OpenAI and reached a multi-year cooperation agreement, including an exclusive cloud service agreement. Under the agreement, Microsoft Azure becomes OpenAI’s exclusive cloud service provider. The cooperation between Microsoft and OpenAI has also formed a "super alliance" in today's AI circle.

In the cooperation between the two, Microsoft has obtained the exclusive license to use OpenAI’s advanced language models such as GPT-3, GPT-4, etc., and has also integrated them into its own products and services. App search engines, Edge browsers, Microsoft 365 productivity tool suite, etc. provide users with a smarter and more efficient language interaction experience, such as implementing intelligent writing suggestions in document editing, providing more accurate answers in searches, and more efficient language interaction experiences. Conversational interaction.

Not only that, with the help of OpenAI technology, Microsoft's Azure cloud platform provides enterprise customers with more powerful AI development and deployment capabilities, such as Azure OpenAI service, allowing enterprises to build and run AI applications more conveniently program, reducing development time and resource costs, attracting more enterprise customers to use Azure cloud services, and promoting the growth of Azure business.

After the bullets flew for a while, competitors such as Google and Amazon felt a headache.

Microsoft and OpenAI collaborate to develop new AI technologies and architectures, accelerating Microsoft’s technological breakthroughs and innovations in core AI fields such as natural language processing and computer vision, enabling it to better meet the market’s demand for AI. The growing demand for applications has enhanced Microsoft's technical competitiveness in the AI ​​field.

And, based on its cooperation with OpenAI, Microsoft has established cooperative relationships with more companies and developers to jointly explore AI application scenarios and business models in various industries, such as in the healthcare field with Epic Systems Cooperate to introduce GPT-4 into medical care, help medical staff reply to patient information and analyze medical records, and open up new business areas and market space.

According to Wells Fargo analyst MichaelTurin predicts these will add more than $30 billion in annual revenue to Microsoft, about half of which will come from Azure.

The flip side of the collaboration between Microsoft and OpenAI is that it’s a little too good, a little too good.

On the other hand, for companies that do not yet use Microsoft servers to operate, purchasing OpenAI technology through Microsoft may face additional costs. For Google and other competitors, these new costs will harm The interests of customers lead to the loss of customers and the shrinkage of business. No wonder the collaboration caught the attention of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC’s antitrust investigation into the cooperation between Microsoft and OpenAI just gave Google a positive signal.

Of course Google cannot let this opportunity pass.

As a competitor of Microsoft, we cannot just watch Microsoft dominate and host OpenAI's artificial intelligence services so that their cloud customers can use OpenAI's technology without relying on Microsoft's servers. It has naturally become An important step in its strategy.

Of course, in the hope that by terminating this exclusive agreement, we will promote the diversified development of the cloud computing market and enable other technology companies to better utilize OpenAI’s technology, thereby enhancing the vitality of the entire competitive market, this It’s understandable in itself.

As the main federal antitrust enforcement agency in the United States, the FTC has also been investigating the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI and whether this cooperation restricts market competition. Its investigation is not limited to the exclusive relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI. The agreement also covers Microsoft's software licensing practices, cybersecurity business and the company's growth AI products.

Currently, Google declined to comment on this information report, and Microsoft, OpenAI, and the Federal Trade Commission have not yet responded to media requests for comment. But this battle between technology giants is not only about market share, but also about the future development direction of cloud computing and artificial intelligence technology.

What is interesting is that at this time, Google may be more sympathetic to Musk, who has repeatedly sued OpenAI.