10 AI News Investors Should Not Miss

2. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 279

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is an American multinational technology company engaged in the development and selling of software, services, and hardware. The company’s AI strategy is driven by its collaboration with OpenAI, its cloud computing infrastructure, and an ever-expanding suite of AI-driven solutions.

On October 28, an executive from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) took to their blog to reveal the forthcoming launch of a new lobby group called the Open Cloud Coalition, which includes Google and several smaller cloud providers, to gain favor with policymakers and antitrust regulators in Europe. Microsoft has learned that Nicky Stewart will lead the organization, previously authoring complaints against Microsoft and Azure Web Services in the UK Competition and Market Authority’s investigation in the cloud computing market. These “shadow campaigns” by Google are “designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public”. Labeling them as an “astroturf group organized by Google,” Rima Alaily – CVP, Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft alleges that Google had “gone through great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control” by positioning smaller European cloud providers as the face of the coalition while keeping itself at the backseat.

“It seems Google has two ultimate goals in its astroturfing efforts: distract from the intense regulatory scrutiny Google is facing around the world by discrediting Microsoft and tilt the regulatory landscape in favor of its cloud services rather than competing on the merits”.

-Alaily said.

A Google spokesperson has acknowledged its membership in the coalition and stated the following:

“We and many others believe that Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices lock-in customers and create negative downstream effects that impact cybersecurity, innovation, and choice”

-Google spokesperson