April 8 (Reuters) - Two Democratic U.S. senators

demanded information from Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Google

about their cloud computing partnerships with

artificial intelligence companies, expressing concern the

arrangements could stifle competition in the cutting-edge

industry.

U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron

Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrats on the Senate banking and

finance committees, respectively, asked Google for details about

its partnership with AI startup Anthropic and Microsoft ( MSFT ) about

its tie-up with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, according to drafts of

the letters seen by Reuters.

"We are concerned that corporate partnerships within the AI

sector discourage competition, circumvent our antitrust laws,

and result in fewer choices and higher prices for businesses and

consumers using AI tools," the senators wrote.

The letters seek how much the AI companies have paid the

cloud providers, whether the deals give Microsoft ( MSFT ) and Google

exclusive rights to license AI models, and whether the Big Tech

companies have any plans to acquire their AI partners.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission issued a staff report in

January, before U.S. President Donald Trump took office, on a

study into partnerships between Microsoft ( MSFT ) and OpenAI, Amazon ( AMZN )

and Anthropic, and Google and Anthropic but withheld

information specific to the companies.

The report raised the possibility that one cloud service

provider could acquire its AI partner, and said that at least

one of the AI providers gave its cloud service provider advance

notice of important decisions.

At least one of the agreements would prevent the AI company

from launching new models on its own without releasing it via

the cloud provider, the FTC said.