Amazon and Microsoft's investments in artificial intelligence start-ups will be subject to deeper scrutiny by UK antitrust regulators, another sign of how global regulators are trying to cope with the impact of global technology giants on the market.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Wednesday that it was consulting market participants to determine whether the $4 billion partnership between Amazon and artificial intelligence company Anthropic threatened competition in the UK.

CMA also said it was considering Microsoft's partnership with Mistral and Inflection AI.

The agency quickly took the move after discovering that the model in which large technology companies invest in artificial intelligence start-ups could allow them to influence the market and raise competition concerns. CMA said it had found an "interconnected network" of collaboration and investment in artificial intelligence.

"We still believe that common business practices such as hiring talent or making partial investments in artificial intelligence start-ups will promote competition, which is different from mergers," a Microsoft spokesman said.

"CMA has conducted an unprecedented evaluation of this kind of cooperation," Amazon said in a statement. "our partnership with Anthropic includes limited investment, does not give Amazon board or observer seats, and continues to allow Anthropic to run its model on multiple cloud providers."

Mistral said it would work closely with CMA to "ensure that our long-term independence and market access are maintained."

"We are an independent company and our strategic partnership or investor relationship will not undermine the independence of our corporate governance or our relationship withCryptomobilerpgFreedom for others to cooperate, "said a spokesman for Anthropic.

Inflection didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.