Nadella testified in a packed courtroom that Google has made it difficult even for Microsoft — a company valued at $2.4 trillion — to compete in the search engine market, according to multiple reports.
Nadella said Google’s deals to be the default search engine across web browsers was a key limiting factor to competition from other tech companies.
He also argued that Google will be able to use its size to dominate the emerging artificial intelligence (AI) space, according to reports of his Monday testimony.
Microsoft, which has invested heavily in OpenAI and incorporated the popular ChatGPT tools into Microsoft products, and Google have been locked in an AI arms race.
“Despite my enthusiasm that there is a new angle with AI, I worry a lot that this vicious cycle that I’m trapped in could get even more vicious,” Nadella said, according to The New York Times.
Adam Severt, a lawyer for the Department of Justice, asked Nadella about Google’s billion-dollar deal to be the default search engine on Apple devices, The Verge reported.
The goverment has focused on Google’s deals with Apple and other companies to be their default search engine — especially on mobile devices — as it attempts to prove Google maintains an illegal monopoly in the search market.
Severt asked Nadella what it would mean if Microsoft were to have the same deal, The Verge reported.
“It would be a game changer,” Nadella reportedly said.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
