The Federal Trade Commission AmazonCNBC confirmed the company’s recently announced deal with AI startup Adept.
The FTC is seeking more information about a deal announced last month that included Amazon hiring key executives and licensing technology from Adept, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC, asking not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Representatives for the FTC and Adept did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the investigation. ReutersAn Amazon spokesman declined to comment on specifics of the investigation.
The move comes as regulators in the U.S. and abroad are stepping up scrutiny of tech companies’ investments and partnerships with AI startups, including the FTC, which announced in January it was investigating Amazon. alphabet and MicrosoftRecent AI deals being investigated by the Department of Justice NVIDIAA leading chip manufacturer leading the AI ​​boom.
The UK competition watchdog said on Tuesday Microsofthas hired some top talent from startup Inflection AI. The report was released in April In it, the company warned that partnerships like those between Microsoft and Inflection AI, and Amazon and AI startup Anthropic, could allow the companies to “shape these markets for their own gain.”
Senators including Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) It pointed out The Amazon-Adept deal is one example of tech companies licensing technology or “hiring by acquisition” to avoid antitrust scrutiny.
As part of the deal announced last month, Amazon has recruited Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan and “several other highly talented team members” to join the team working on the artificial general intelligence unit, and also agreed to license Adept’s technology, multimodal models, and some of its datasets.
Adept said in a blog post last month that it needed more capital to develop its own AI models, adding that the Amazon deal would allow it to focus on building AI agents.
The Adept deal marks Amazon’s latest high-profile bet on AI: Amazon is also investing billions in OpenAI competitor Antropic, which is developing generative AI products across its cloud computing, retail and consumer electronics businesses.
—CNBC’s Hayden Field contributed to this story.
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