The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened a formal investigation into Microsoft over its move to hire staff from Inflection AI, after a large chunk of the latter’s workforce joined the technology giant’s new AI division.

CMA stated it is opening a phase one investigation into the partnership, setting a deadline of 11 September to decide whether it will advance to an in-depth phase two probe.

In March, Microsoft named Inflection AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman as EVP and CEO of its AI consumer group, while hiring co-founder Karen Simonyan as chief scientist for the unit.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated at the time several members of the Inflection AI team including engineers and researchers would also join Microsoft AI.

Inflection has raised more than $1.5 billion in funding, with Microsoft one of its many high-profile backers.

Regulators are notably taking aim at partnerships between technology giants and AI companies. The European Commission has opened queries into Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI and Google’s deal to install generative AI capabilities into Samsung devices. It also said it would monitor “acqui-hires”, citing Microsoft and Inflection AI as a primary example.

CMA recently took a look at Microsoft’s partnership with French company Mistral AI, but decided it did not qualify for investigation under its merger rules.