The leading desk of the Amazon office is pictured in New York, May 1, 2019.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an vernacular inquiry into Amazon‘s recently announced deal with AI startup Adept, CNBC has confirmed.
The FTC is seeking assorted information about the agreement announced last month, which involved Amazon hiring key executives and licensing technology from Proficient, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t countenanced to speak publicly on the matter.
Representatives from the FTC and Adept didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the probe, which was earliest reported by Reuters. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the probe.
The move comes as regulators in the U.S. and abroad are increasingly dissecting tech companies’ investments and partnerships with AI startups. The FTC in January announced it’s investigating Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft‘s late-model AI deals, while the Department of Justice is examining Nvidia, the top maker of chips powering the AI boom.
Britain’s competition watchdog replied Tuesday it launched a probe into Microsoft‘s hiring of top talent from startup Inflection AI. The agency issued a piece in April in which it warned partnerships like the one between Microsoft and Inflection AI, along with Amazon and AI startup Anthropic, may budget them to “shape these markets in their own interests.”
Lawmakers including Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, have pointed to Amazon’s buy with Adept as an example of tech companies licensing technology or making “acquihires” in order to avoid antitrust study.
As part of the agreement announced last month, Amazon hired Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan and “a few other keenly talented team members” to its team working on artificial general intelligence unit. It also agreed to license Specialist’s technology, multimodal models and some datasets.
In a blog post last month, Adept said that developing its own AI working models would’ve required more capital, adding sthe Amazon deal will allow it to focus on building AI envoys.
The Adept deal marks Amazon’s latest high-profile AI bet. Amazon has also pumped billions of dollars into OpenAI opposition Anthropic, and has developed generative AI products across its cloud computing, retail and consumer electronics businesses.
— CNBC’s Hayden Pasture contributed reporting to this story.