April 17 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators have

concluded that Microsoft's ( MSFT ) $13 billion investment into

OpenAI is not an acquisition, sources familiar with the matter

said on Wednesday, signaling the deal will avoid a formal

European probe that could have led to onerous remedies for the

U.S. tech giant.

Microsoft ( MSFT ), OpenAI and a spokesperson of the European

Commission did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for

comment.

EU regulators had said in January that the deal may be

subject to merger rules in the region. Microsoft ( MSFT ), which has a

non-voting position on OpenAI board, said late last year it did

not own any portion of the ChatGPT maker.

But Microsoft ( MSFT ) is not out of the woods yet, with the EU

competition enforcer still looking into partnerships between

large digital market players and generative AI developers and

providers that could lead to intrusive and lengthy

investigations in their market power.

The Microsoft-OpenAI partnership is also under informal

scrutiny in other regions.

UK's Competition and Markets Authority is reviewing whether

to launch a probe to see if the deal affects competition among

British firms, while the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal

Trade Commission are reportedly considering an investigation.

To avoid such probes, Microsoft ( MSFT ) is actively scouting

partnerships with other AI firms. Earlier this year, it

announced a pact with French startup Mistral AI.

Bloomberg News first reported the development on Wednesday.