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Comment by htrp | Hacker News Reader

>The startup, growing frustrated with its partner, has discussed making antitrust complaints to regulators

Ratting MSFT out to the government doesn't seem like the move of someone with a strong hand.

That sentence made me assume OpenAI leaked this story to WSJ as a negotiating tactic. You're right that leaking this indicates OpenAI's position is weak. The threat to make an antitrust complaint is also strange since 'going nuclear' like that probably wouldn't help OpenAI soon enough to matter. Antitrust action isn't fast. So all it would do is potentially hurt MSFT and prove OpenAI is a risky partner willing to torch one of their largest partner/investors.

If I see any story about OpenAI, I assume it's an intentional 'leak'. I know all companies spend money on paid PR but OpenAI (and Sam Altman) take it to a completely different level.

Disagree. This is a natural consequence of government anti-trust becoming less principled (what I mean by that is that the consumer welfare standard is somewhat objective even if you feel it's suboptimal). It's easier for companies to lobby and try and influence the process, particularly when less principled folks are in office.

The $13bn investment in 2023 was so clearly structured to skirt antitrust concerns that it's unsurprising that that avenue is discussed.

Since then, MSFT has made other regulatory-aggressive investments, and the recent Meta / Scale AI is similarly aggressively designed.

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