Microsoft's partnership with French firm Mistral AI under scrutiny from EU

27 February 2024 , 12:41

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Microsoft said it was joining forces with Mistral by investing 15 million euros (£12.7 million) in the French company (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Microsoft's new partnership with French firm Mistral AI is being looked at by European Union.

The EU said on Tuesday that it's looking at the deal between the two companies, which was announced just a day before. Microsoft didn't want to comment and Mistral didn't reply when asked for a comment.

On Monday, Microsoft said it was joining forces with Mistral by investing 15 million euros (£12.7 million) in the French company, which only started up less than a year ago. This deal could mean that Microsoft won't have to rely so much on OpenAI, who make ChatGPT, for chatbots and other AI products.

The commission, the EU's top antitrust enforcer, said it's including the deal as part of its broader review of the generative AI market. It's examining agreements between digital tech giants and generative AI developers and providers. Last month, the EU started to look into Microsoft's massive deal with OpenAI, based in San Francisco, which might lead to a full investigation into whether they're merging.

Lawrence Matheson