Josh Sisco

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission are deep in discussions over which agency can probe OpenAI, including the ChatGPT creators’ involvement with Microsoft, on antitrust grounds. The FTC initiated talks with the DOJ months ago to figure out which one can review the matter, but neither agency is ready to relinquish jurisdiction, which must be resolved before the government can formally intervene in one of the most high-profile and controversial tech partnerships in recent years. Microsoft has put billions of dollars into OpenAI over the last several years.

Tim Wu, the White House adviser helping to drive the administration’s push to rein in corporate giants with tougher antitrust enforcement is planning to leave his position in the coming months. Wu is expected to return to teaching at Columbia Law School after a roughly year-and-a-half as special assistant to President Biden for technology and competition policy. Wu was part of a trio of antitrust hawks President Joe Biden installed in 2021 as part of a push to curb the power of sprawling companies — a fight that has focused in particular on tech titans like Amazon and Google.

Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter takeover is unlikely to raise antitrust concerns. But what is already being scrutinized is Musk’s failure to comply with rules regarding disclosure of his initial 9 percent stake, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The Federal Trade Commission recently opened an inquiry into whether Musk failed to comply with an antitrust reporting requirement as he amassed his initial 9.1 percent stake in Twitter between the end of January and the beginning of April 2022.