Just six major technology companies are at the heart of the AI sector through an "interconnected web" of more than 90 investments and partnerships links, the UK's competition regulator has warned, sparking increased concern about the anti-competitive nature of the technology. Sarah Cardell, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, said AI foundation models – general-purpose AI systems such as OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini, on which consumer and business products are frequently built – were a potential "paradigm shift" for society. Speaking in Washington, she added that the immense concentration of power they represented would give a small number of companies "the ability and incentives to shape these markets in their own interests". "When we started this work, we were curious. Now, with a deeper understanding and having watched developments very closely, we have real concerns," Cardell said.

The UK is considering an investigation into Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI to decide if it has resulted in an "acquisition of control" that's subject to antitrust law, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) wrote today. The regulator said it's considering "recent developments," no doubt referring to the Sam Altman CEO ouster drama in which Microsoft played a large role. "The CMA is now issuing an ITC to determine whether the Microsoft/OpenAI partnership, including recent developments, has resulted in a relevant merger situation and, if so, the potential impact on competition," it said in a news release. "The CMA will review whether the partnership has resulted in an acquisition of control -- that is, where it results in one party having material influence, de facto control or more than 50% of the voting rights over another entity." The regulator noted that the "close and multifaceted" partnership includes a multi-billion dollar investment by Microsoft, technology development cooperation and cloud services.

The UK's competition watchdog has cleared Microsoft's $69bn (£54bn) deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the maker of games including Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, in a move that paves the way for both companies to complete the transaction. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) moved to block the megadeal in April, citing concerns that Microsoft – the maker of the Xbox gaming console – would dominate the nascent cloud gaming market. However, last month the watchdog said a revised deal that included selling cloud gaming rights outside Europe to Activision Blizzard's French rival Ubisoft had addressed its concerns, indicating the tie-up would be approved. Sarah Cardell, the CMA's chief executive, said on Friday that the competition regulator had ensured that Microsoft could not have a "stranglehold" over cloud gaming, which allows users to stream video games stored on remote servers on to their devices. "As cloud gaming grows, this intervention will ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice," Cardell said.

Microsoft has filed changes to its proposed takeover of the video game maker Activision Blizzard, in an attempt to win over the UK competition regulator, which previously blocked the $69bn (£54bn) deal. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Tuesday said it would investigate the new proposals, under which Microsoft will not acquire cloud rights outside Europe for existing Activision desktop computer and console games, or for new games released by the developer during the next 15 years. The move revives the US tech company's hopes of completing the takeover of the owner of hit titles such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush after the CMA in April blocked it, citing concerns it could allow the company to dominate the nascent cloud gaming market. Streaming games from cloud servers is at present a small niche, but the CMA argued that the takeover of a maker of blockbuster games by the leading provider of cloud gaming could prevent healthy competition from forming. However, the UK regulator had appeared increasingly isolated after its EU counterparts passed the deal and the US competition regulator lost a court request to block it. Microsoft had reacted with fury when the UK initially blocked the deal.

Wow." Phone calls with law professors about regulatory actions don't normally start with unprompted expressions of amazement, but regulatory actions don't normally come like this. Anne Witt, professor of law and member of the EDHEC Augmented Law Institute, had been expecting to have a very different conversation when we spoke last Wednesday. But then, just minutes before we were due to talk, the UK's competition regulator blocked Microsoft's attempted $68.7bn acquisition of megadeveloper Activision Blizzard, the sprawling corporation behind games including Candy Crush Saga, World of Warcraft, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and, most importantly, Call of Duty. Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is just one of a number of international regulators which was investigating the proposed acquisition. In the US, the Federal Trade Commision (FTC) had already sued to block the takeover in December, with the case due in court later this year. The European Union is investigating, and has given itself a deadline of 22 May to make a decision, while Australia has paused its own investigation while it engages with overseas regulators. One of those regulators had already given the deal a pass. In March, the Japan Fair Trade Commission ruled that it was "unlikely to result in substantially restraining competition", and approved it to go ahead. Japan's justification for allowing the merger was also behind Witt's expectation it would be approved. "For 30 years or so, competition agencies, very much influenced by the US school, have taken the view that'vertical mergers' are rarely dangerous," she explained, once the shock had worn off. "If you have a'horizontal merger' – if Microsoft had bought up a competitor – it is very evident that that will have a direct effect on competition, because it eliminates one player in the market.

The UK's competition regulator has blocked Microsoft's attempted takeover of Activision Blizzard, the developer behind hit video games such as Call of Duty, in what would have been the largest acquisition in gaming history. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) prevented the $68.7bn (£55bn) cash purchase because of concerns it would squash the cloud gaming market. The tie-up would have created a gaming behemoth, merging Activision's plethora of "AAA" titles, which also include World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Candy Crush Saga and Overwatch, with Microsoft's burgeoning stable of first-party developers, its Xbox consoles and its control of PC gaming. The block follows the CMA's decision in October last year to prevent Meta acquiring the animated gif search engine Giphy. Anne Witt, a law professor and member of the EDHEC Augmented Law Institute, described the Activision decision as "huge news".

Business Secretary Greg Clark said he had asked Andrew Tyrie, the head of the Competition and Markets Authority, to advise him on regulatory changes to tackle the problem. He said that there were already signs that companies had used personal data to exploit customers by, for example, targeting the elderly or those who fail to shop around. Energy groups were signalled out as one group that effectively applied a "loyalty penalty" to faithful customers. Other examples include splitting up families on flights if they fail to pay extra to book seating next to one another or loyal energy consumers who are charged more if they do not switch supplier regularly. Citizens Advice estimated that the tactics may generate around £4bn a year.