Asia Tech Wire (June 6) -- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is delving into Microsoft's deal with California-based AI startup Inflection, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Citing a person familiar with the matter, the report said the FTC is now probing deeper into the Microsoft-Inflection deal, seeking information about how and why the two sides negotiated the partnership.

The FTC is trying to determine whether Microsoft crafted a deal that would allow it to both control Inflection and avoid the FTC's scrutiny of the deal, the person said.

Meanwhile, U.S. regulators have also struck a deal to open antitrust investigations into the dominance of Microsoft, OpenAI and Nvidia in the artificial intelligence industry.

In late March, Microsoft agreed to pay Inflection $650 million for a license to its AI software.

In addition, Microsoft announced the hiring of Inflection's co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, as well as most of the startup's employees.