The US Department of Justice has dropped a proposal to force Alphabet’s Google to sell its investments in artificial intelligence companies, including OpenAI competitor Anthropic. The move comes as part of the ongoing antitrust case against Google, which seeks to address allegations of maintaining an illegal monopoly in online search.
Google holds a minority stake worth billions of dollars in Anthropic and losing this investment would give OpenAI and Microsoft a competitive advantage. However, prosecutors argued that forcing Google to sell its AI investments could cause unintended consequences in the evolving AI space.
Instead, the DOJ will seek a court order requiring Google to address what a judge described as Google’s illegal search monopoly. This includes selling Chrome browser, among other measures aimed at boosting competition in online search.
Google has vowed to continue its crackdown on Big Tech and has made its own proposal that would loosen agreements with Apple and others to set Google as the default search engine on new devices. The case is one of several US antitrust cases against Big Tech companies, including Apple, Meta Platforms, and Amazon.com.
The move has been met with support from Democratic and Republican attorneys general, as well as the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA. However, Google has said that the proposals would harm America’s consumers, economy, and national security. The case is set to go to trial in April.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-drops-bid-make-google-sell-ai-investments-antitrust-case-2025-03-07