The UK regulator has approved Microsoft's (MSFT.US) $13bn investment in OpenAI, bringing the dust to settle.

Microsoft Corp.'s $13bn investment in OpenAI Inc. has been approved by Britain’s antitrust regulator, ending months of uncertainty over the companies’ collaboration.The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said the 2023 deal did not meet the criteria for a full investigation under merger rules. The CMA said at the time it planned to investigate whether the collaboration would give either company more control or influence over the other.After about 14 months of review, the decision removes one regulatory uncertainty for microsoft in Britain, though the company still faces ongoing investigations into its cloud services. Just weeks ago, the US Federal Trade Commission raised concerns that the deal could extend Microsoft’s dominance in the cloud computing sector to emerging artificial intelligence markets.“The CMA found that while Microsoft had a significant influence over OpenAI as early as 2019, Microsoft did not change or gain control of OpenAI,” the CMA said in a statement.Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has given it an edge in its competition with other large tech companies by integrating OpenAI’s products into almost every corner of its core business.Last year, Microsoft and Apple abandoned plans to join OpenAI’s board, a move that highlighted growing scrutiny of the companies. The CMA has been at the forefront of global regulators’ actions, seeking to ensure that large tech companies’ investments in the artificial intelligence industry do not distort markets or give a few companies an outsize influence. The UK agency has expressed concerns about the “interconnected networks” of cooperation and investment in the AI ecosystem, and previously approved a deal between Google and AI company Anthropic.