Microsoft avoids UK probe into hiring of Inflection AI employees [Video]

LONDON — Microsoft’s hiring of employees from Inflection AI, the artificial intelligence startup started by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, has been cleared by the U.K.’s competition regulator and will not face an in-depth competition investigation in the country.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. tech giant’s deal to acquire “certain assets” from Inflection does count as a “relevant merger situation” in Britain, but that it ultimately “does not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition (SLC) as a result of horizontal unilateral effects.”

In March, Microsoft announced the hiring of Suleyman from Inflection, along with a number of other key employees at the firm. Suleyman was appointed Microsoft’s executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft AI. The newly formed unit of Microsoft focused on its artificial intelligence products, including Copilot, the company’s AI assistant, which it integrated into Windows and Microsoft 365

In addition to …