The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reportedly plan to launch antitrust investigations into the perceived dominance of Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI in the AI segment, with the agencies agreeing to divide responsibilities in probing the three companies.

Citing anonymous sources, New York Times (NYT) reported the two regulators have discussed the move over the past week, resulting in a conclusion in which the DoJ will take charge in investigating Nvidia’s potential violation of antitrust laws while the FTC will probe OpenAI and Microsoft.

The move could be announced in the coming days, added the newspaper.

The decision to investigate has apparently been fuelled by heightened concerns within the US government about the rise of “humanlike” AI-generated images, texts, videos and audio, technology which has triggered an “industry frenzy”, reported NYT.

ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, handsomely backed by Microsoft, for example introduced a text-to-video AI generator Sora in February.

Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI has also been the target of the European Commission (EC), but the body eventually opted against launching an investigation as the partnership does not classify as an M&A.

More recently, UK authorities also abandoned plans to probe Microsoft’s multi-million dollar deal with Mistral AI.

Meanwhile, the planned US probe into Nvidia is linked to the the ways in which the company “locks customers” into using its AI chips and how it distributes the chips to customers, reported NYT, adding industry players “have grown worried” about its dominance.

Nvidia’s market cap is now valued at more $3 trillion.

Earlier this month, AI players including Mistral AI, Microsoft, OpenAI and Google pledged to report their safety frameworks on developing the technology under the UK’s renewed Bletchley agreement. The UK had also inked a deal with US to evaluate AI safety.