Microsoft Partnership with Mistral AI Survives UK CMA Scrutiny

After a month-long inquiry, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) determined that Microsoft’s partnership with French AI startup Mistral AI doesn’t warrant a formal investigation.

“The CMA has decided that Microsoft Corporation’s partnership with Mistral AI does not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002,” a UK CMA statement notes.

Microsoft announced its partnership with Mistral AI in February, but didn’t initially reveal it was investing €15 million ($16.3 million) in the AI startup. Under the terms of the deal, Mistral AI is adopting Microsoft Azure to develop its next-gen large language model, and the software giant is making Mistral AI’s models available as alternatives to OpenAI’s models in the Azure AI Studio and Azure Machine Learning model catalog.

This is one of several AI partnerships Microsoft has made this year to diversify itself beyond its outsized partnership with OpenAI. And given the strangeness of Microsoft’s relationship with OpenAI, it’s perhaps not surprising that its Mistral AI link-up triggered scrutiny. The European Commission announced it would take a look at the deal in February, and the UK CMA announced its inquiry in April.

But that inquiry has concluded.

“Investment and partnership are essential to new players in the AI economy,” a Microsoft statement notes. “We welcome the CMA’s determination that our fractional investment and partnership with Mistral AI does not qualify as a merger or acquisition.”