The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Microsoft over potential antitrust violations, focusing on whether the company uses exclusionary practices within its Azure cloud services and artificial intelligence sectors.

Key Points

• The FTC issued civil investigative demands to multiple competitors to examine Microsoft’s licensing, bundling, and interoperability practices.
• Investigators are specifically probing whether Microsoft leverages its market dominance to gain an unfair advantage in cloud computing and AI.
• Microsoft maintains that its business practices promote competition and is cooperating fully with the ongoing federal inquiry.
• Similar antitrust investigations into Microsoft’s cloud services are currently underway in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
• The probe follows years of complaints from rivals regarding 2019 licensing changes that increased costs for running Windows on non-Azure infrastructure.

Why it Matters

This investigation signals a potential shift in regulatory scrutiny toward Microsoft, which has largely avoided the aggressive antitrust litigation faced by other major technology firms. A formal legal challenge could significantly alter the competitive landscape for cloud computing and AI, potentially forcing changes to how the company bundles its software and services.