This update focuses on the digital technology sectors and the firms that have come to be collectively known as “Big Tech.” Our AI Industry

Epic Games Inc., a software developer known for its popular Fortnite video game franchise and landmark antitrust disputes with Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.‘s Google, and others, has brought on longtime technology industry attorney Reginald “Reggie” Davis as its new general counsel.

This drive to break up some of the largest US companies, which began during the first Trump administration and expanded under Joe Biden, marked the biggest challenge in decades to the tech industry’s alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

Big tech companies are recruiting key talent from startups through collaborations or partnerships, but the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has put the brakes on this talent acquisition method. The FTC views such approaches—poaching talent without formal mergers and acquisitions (M&A)—as potential loopholes to avoid antitrust investigations.

Google has filed its appeal to the Department of Justice’s antitrust case that ended with a federal judge ruling that the company was maintaining a monopoly with its search business. While the company goes through the appeals process,

The CCI has warned Apple that it will proceed with the tech giant's antitrust case in India unilaterally if non-cooperation continues.

The US Federal Trade Commission is scrutinising ‍big tech firms that ​hire employees of a startup instead of ⁠buying the companies outright. The growing practice, in which big ‌tech firms ‌pay for startups' technology and talent without buying the company,

The Justice Department has fired a shot acrossBigTech's bow. In a recentspeech, Dina Kallay, a deputy assistant attorney general in the department's antitrust division, criticizedBigTechfor using supposedly "free" patent-licensing initiatives to poach smaller competitors' technologies.

After the AI gold rush saw startups mushroom, a reckoning has begun. Everyone won't survive, but before a shakeout begins, bigger players have begun shopping—often via stealth buyouts to avoid antitrust scrutiny.