云计算与生成人工智能的竞争关系（英）

WORKING PAPER | ISSUE 19/2023 | 11 DECEMBER 2023Recommended citation:Carugati, C. (2023) ‘Th e competitive relationship between cloud computing and generative AI’, Working Paper 19/2023, BruegelCHRISTOPHE CARUGATICloud computing providers and generative artfi cial intelligence (GenAI) providers nurture a close, interdependent relationship: GenAI providers need cloud providers to train, run and deploy their GenAI solutions, while cloud providers see GenAI providers as a business driver to grow their market shares in cloud and related markets, such as productivity software or search engines. Th e cloud/GenAI relationship takes various forms, including exclusive and strategic partnerships, especially between large cloud providers and GenAI providers across all parts of the cloud market, including infrastructure, platforms and software.Competition benefi ts and risks are likely to result from the relationships. Competition benefi ts arise from increased competition and innovation in the cloud and GenAI sectors. Risks relate to potential concentrations arising from the partnerships between cloud and GenAI providers, and from anticompetitive practices, including discrimination in thesupply of IT equipment by dominant IT providers, interoperability obstacles to switching, use of business-user data, self-preferencing of cloud services over third parties, tying and pure bundling.Merger control and antitrust laws can address some of the competition risks, while laws, including the European Union’s Digital Markets Act and Data Act, can deal with competition issues in digital markets and the cloud sector. Nevertheless there are gaps. Th e European Commission should amend existing EU instruments, including by changing the defi nition of a concentration under merger control, and should specify interoperability requirements for cloud providers under the Data Act. Th e Commission should also closely monitor developments in and outside Europe through market investigations, including with international counterparts, and should intervene to tackle imminent competition risks using fast procedural tools, such as interim measures.Christophe Carugati (christophe.carugati@bruegel.org) is an Affi liate Fellow at BruegelTHE COMPETITIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLOUD COMPUTING AND GENERATIVE AI1 Introduction Cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) are central to the economy's digital transformation1. Via the cloud, infrastructure, platforms and services are accessible online, including GenAI applications, such as the OpenAI-owned natural conversational language application ChatGPT. GenAI applications use natural language processing, such as text summarisation, to generate output from input data. The cloud sector was worth an estimated €84.76 billion in Europe in 2022, with the expectation that this will double to €175.87 billion by 20272. The same trend of very rapid growth can be seen in the GenAI sector. It was worth an estimated $6.33 billion in E