The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has ended its investigation into the partnership between Microsoft and Inflection AI and cleared it of any competition concerns. It did, however, deem it a “relevant merger situation” that falls within its jurisdiction, so similar deals that do not strictly meet the criteria of an acquisition could be investigated in the future. Inflection AI co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan joined Microsoft in March and took “several” coworkers with them. This included Jordan Hoffman, who now fronts Microsoft’s AI Hub in London. The CMA opened an inquiry into whether this and Microsoft’s other deals with Inflection should be considered anti-competitive on July 16. The CMA has released a summary of its investigation, explaining the decision. Ultimately, the merger “does not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition as a result of horizontal unilateral effects” in the realms of consumer chatbots and foundational AI models. Why Microsoft hiring from Inflection drew the CMA’s attention The inquiry studied “whether it is or may be the case …