2023 Boosts Big Tech’s AI monopoly? Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and others wield money power

tech.hindustantimes.com:

 A new crop of artificial intelligence startups has shaken up Silicon Valley — and the wider business world — throughout this year, but there's one thing that hasn't changed: Big Tech still wields power. In the wake of Microsoft Corp.'s $10 billion investment in OpenAI in January, other tech giants raced to partner with leading AI startups through funding and cloud computing deals. Salesforce Inc. led a round in Hugging Face at a $4.5 billion valuation. Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. invested billions in OpenAI rival Anthropic. And Nvidia Corp. seemed to back almost every AI startup of note. 

The net effect is that many of the most promising AI startups now depend heavily on the old guard of dominant tech companies for their financing and infrastructure needs. That dynamic is starting to draw the attention of regulators.

Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI is facing fresh scrutiny from UK and US competition regulators. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has been tasked by the Biden administration with promoting “a fair, open, and competitive AI ecosystem.” The agency has previously requested public comment about whether large cloud computing contracts are anti-competitive.

“What regulators might be concerned about is that the story of Big Tech's strategic investment in AI startups could have the potential to become the story of Big Tech's AI monopoly,” said Ngor Luong, senior research analyst who focuses on AI investment trends at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. 

For AI companies, these deals with Big Tech can serve as a vital lifeline. It's extremely costly and computationally intensive to build large language models, the technology that underpins AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Large