By Joe Fay
Publication Date: 2026-02-16 13:53:00
The US Federal Trade Commission has sent out a raft of civil investigative demands to Microsoft’s competitors as it warms up a probe into whether the cloud and software giant has an illegal monopoly across chunks of the enterprise tech market.
Bloomberg reported over the weekend that the FTC had contacted at least half a dozen companies as part of the probe, presenting them with detailed questions on Redmond’s licensing and business practices.
Microsoft: So what if it costs 4X as much to run Windows Server in AWS, Alibaba, and Google?
Whether Microsoft makes it difficult (or more costly) for customers to run its software on third-party cloud platforms appears to be a key question, though AI, security, and ID software are also on the agenda.
The FTC demanded stacks of info on Microsoft’s AI operations in 2024, according to the report. This included model training costs, datacenter operations, and licensing practices.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority’s…
