TLDRs;
- OpenAI met with EU regulators urging action against Google and Big Tech’s AI dominance.
- The firm also flagged Microsoft, its $13 billion investor, for potential “platform lock-in.”
- OpenAI is rapidly evolving into a platform owner, not just an AI model provider.
- Control over data and compute access will decide the winners in the next AI era.
OpenAI has called on European regulators to take stronger action against potential monopolistic behavior by tech giants, specifically naming Google, Apple, and even its own key partner, Microsoft.
During a September 24 meeting with the European Commission’s antitrust division, OpenAI raised concerns about “entrenched platform power” that could lock users and developers into specific ecosystems.
The discussion, first reported by Bloomberg, stopped short of a formal complaint but marked a decisive moment for the $500 billion AI firm. OpenAI’s message was clear: unchecked control by large technology companies could stifle innovation, limit consumer choice, and centralize the benefits of artificial intelligence within a handful of corporate silos.
The company’s argument focused on one key issue access.
“Key data inputs and distribution channels must remain open and competitive,” OpenAI’s representatives reportedly told regulators.
Without open access to data, APIs, and cloud infrastructure, they warned, smaller AI firms would struggle to compete.
A Complex Relationship with Microsoft
Perhaps the most striking part of OpenAI’s intervention is that it includes Microsoft, the firm that has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI and integrated its models across Windows, Office, and Azure. Despite this partnership, OpenAI has grown increasingly wary of what it calls “platform lock-in,” particularly in cloud infrastructure and enterprise AI tools.
Microsoft’s advantage lies in bundling its AI assistant, Copilot, across its software ecosystem, creating what OpenAI sees as structural barriers for competitors. In parallel, OpenAI’s ChatGPT now serves more than 800 million weekly users and has begun offering its own software development kit (SDK), allowing developers to build directly within ChatGPT.
That makes OpenAI both a supplier and a competitor to its biggest backer, a dynamic that defines the new power struggle within the AI industry.
The Platform Play Beneath the Surface
OpenAI’s complaint to EU regulators isn’t just a defensive move, it’s a strategic pivot. Behind the scenes, the company is rapidly transforming from an AI model provider into a fully-fledged platform operator. Recent deals highlight this shift: a multi-year chip supply agreement with AMD, a planned 10-gigawatt Nvidia deployment, and even early talks on custom silicon with Broadcom.
These partnerships, worth up to $100 billion in combined investment, are designed to secure the compute power necessary to sustain OpenAI’s global scale without being entirely dependent on cloud giants. In other words, OpenAI is building its own foundation to compete at the platform level, controlling not just models and users, but also the hardware beneath them.
This vertical integration echoes the playbooks of companies like Apple and Google, both of which control their hardware, operating systems, and app distribution pipelines. The irony, of course, is that OpenAI now risks becoming the very kind of gatekeeper it is warning regulators about.
