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The Federal Trade Commission is planning to launch an investigation into Microsoft’s cloud software business over alleged anticompetitive practices, as the Democratic-led agency tries to cement a legacy of aggressive regulation during President Joe Biden’s final weeks in office.
President-elect Donald Trump’s antitrust policies are still unclear, but there are indications he will pressure Big Tech companies on some fronts.
The FTC is preparing to send a demand for documents and other records to Microsoft, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the agency’s private plans. The FTC’s preparations to investigate the company were previously reported by the Financial Times.
Victoria Graham, a spokesperson for the FTC, declined to comment. A spokesman for Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.
In June, the European Union said that Microsoft had abused its position in the cloud software market when it bundled its work communications tool Teams with its other business apps.
The Biden administration has overseen stepped-up scrutiny of major tech companies and more robust enforcement of antitrust rules by the FTC and the Justice Department. FTC Chair Lina Khan (D) has shifted the agency to a more aggressive posture toward emerging technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
Tech analysts and executives have predicted Trump will replace Khan, who has been unpopular with investors and tech leaders. Days before the election, Elon Musk, a major backer of Trump, posted on X that Khan would “be fired soon.”
Some Silicon Valley venture capitalists and executives have been ecstatic about Trump’s win, predicting that he will make good on his promises to gut regulations, which they say will help their companies grow. Over the past two decades, venture capitalists have relied on Big Tech companies’ buying of successful start-ups to make a return on their investments.
Trump is also expected to take aggressive antitrust action in the tech sector, building on the lawsuits brought against Meta and Google during his first administration. But he is likely to take a lighter touch to AI and mergers, amid a deepening alliance with tech executives and investors who say the Biden administration stifled innovation.
During his first presidency and while he was out of office, Trump was a steady critic of Big Tech, accusing social media companies and Google of suppressing positive information about him. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube kicked him off their platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol but later allowed him to return.
Trump has also pitched himself as a populist who will curtail the power of Big Tech. Vice President-elect JD Vance, a former venture capitalist, has spoken positively of Khan and her investigations of tech companies.
The FTC secured a victory Wednesday when a federal judge ruled that its lawsuit accusing Facebook owner Meta of holding an illegal monopoly over social media can proceed to trial.
The agency is also in the middle of scrutinizing whether Microsoft, Google and Amazon tried to sidestep antitrust laws with investments in AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic, The Washington Post reported this year. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
Until the past two years, Microsoft had avoided much of the antitrust pressure directed at other Big Tech companies. About 20 years ago, the company faced a landmark antitrust investigation and trial, which tech leaders largely credit with making space for Google and other internet-era companies to spring up.
Since then, Microsoft has continued to grow and is now the third-largest company in the world by market value, after computer chip maker Nvidia and Apple.
The company’s cloud business spans workplace software such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, and communications tools like Microsoft Teams and Outlook. Its cloud services are used by hundreds of thousands of companies to run their apps and websites. The cloud business also offers AI services and tools built on Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investments into OpenAI, the leader in the new crop of AI companies that are quickly growing in reach and power.
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