Microsoft CEO accuses Google of dominating online searching

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has accused Google of dominating market share in online searching through locking up the content that feeds developing large language models (LLMs) during his testimony at Google’s ongoing antitrust trial in Washington DC, according to foreign press.

The unprecedented U.S. trial against Google, is the first major antitrust case brought by the U.S. since it sued Microsoft in 1998.

Google already stands accused of monopolising the internet by unfairly dominating competition from other search engines by paying billions of dollars to Samsung and Apple to ensure Google’s place as the default web browser on many smartphones. 

Nadella added that Google had also divided up online content by the same default agreements through expensive and exclusive deals with publishers.

Nadella’s statements were made in response to Judge Amit Mehta’s inquiry as to whether Al could create equal opportunities between Google and its competitors. 

“When I am meeting with publishers now, they say Google’s going to write this check and its exclusive and you have to match it,” Nadella reportedly stated in court according to Reuters.

Microsoft made investments worth $10bln into OpenAI’s LLM ChatGPT, whose release to the public back in November 2022 is often credited as the reason for AI’s subsequent coverage and investment boom.