A view of the reception desk at Amazon's New York office, May 1, 2019.
Carlo Allegri | Reuters
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an informal investigation into AmazonCNBC has confirmed Apple's recently announced deal with AI startup Adept.
The FTC is seeking more information about the agreement announced last month, which involved Amazon hiring key executives and licensing technology from Adept, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Representatives for the FTC and Adept did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the investigation, which was first reported by Reuters. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the details of the investigation.
The move comes as regulators in the U.S. and abroad increasingly scrutinize tech companies’ investments and partnerships with AI startups. The Federal Trade Commission announced in January that it was investigating Amazon, the alphabet And MicrosoftRecent AI deals as DOJ mulls Nvidiathe largest chipmaker powering the AI boom.
Britain's competition watchdog said on Tuesday it had launched an investigation into MicrosoftThe agency issued a report in April warning that partnerships like those Microsoft has with Inflection AI, along with Amazon and AI startup Anthropic, could allow them to “shape these markets to their own advantage.”
Lawmakers, including Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have pointed to Amazon’s deal with Adept as an example of tech companies licensing technology or making acquisitions in order to avoid antitrust scrutiny.
As part of the deal announced last month, Amazon hired Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan and “some very talented team members” to work on its AGI team. It also agreed to license Adept’s technology, multi-modal models and certain datasets.
In a blog post last month, Adept said that developing its own AI models required more capital, and said the deal with Amazon would allow it to focus on building AI agents.
The Adept deal represents Amazon’s latest high-profile bet on AI. Amazon has also poured billions into Anthropic, an OpenAI competitor, and has developed generative AI products across its cloud computing, retail and consumer electronics businesses.
— CNBC's Hayden Field contributed to this story.
