Switzerland Launches Probe into Microsoft Licensing Fees; Microsoft to Spend $500M on Anthropic AI
Switzerland’s competition watchdog has opened a preliminary probe into Microsoft’s licensing fee increases after complaints from businesses and public bodies, risking formal antitrust action. Separately, Microsoft is on track to spend about $500 million annually on Anthropic’s AI models to power Copilot features, highlighting rising operational costs in its AI strategy.
1. Switzerland Competition Authority Opens Preliminary Investigation
Switzerland’s Competition Commission (COMCO) announced on January 12 that it has opened a preliminary probe into Microsoft’s software licensing fees after receiving complaints from over 50 corporations and public‐sector entities. Complainants cite average price increases of 8–12% on certain enterprise agreements signed in 2025, with some reporting unusual surcharges on cloud‐based Office suites. COMCO will now gather detailed contract terms and comparative pricing data from both Microsoft and market competitors over a 60‐day period to determine whether to launch a full antitrust investigation by mid‐March.
2. Microsoft Secures Record 2.85 Million Soil Carbon Credits
In its largest single environmental procurement to date, Microsoft has signed an agreement with Indigo Carbon to purchase 2.85 million soil carbon credits generated by regenerative agriculture projects across six U.S. states. The credits, equivalent to sequestering approximately 6.5 million metric tons of CO2 over a 10‐year period, will be retired by Microsoft between 2026 and 2030 as part of the company’s ‘carbon negative by 2030’ commitment. Indigo Carbon estimates the deal is worth over $100 million at current market rates for high‐quality carbon offsets.
3. Azure Strengthened by Multi‐Model AI Partnerships
Microsoft continues to expand Azure’s AI ecosystem through strategic alliances with leading model providers. Since September 2025, the company has integrated OpenAI’s GPT-4o, xAI’s Grok and DeepSeek’s China-based alternative into Microsoft 365 Copilot, routing tasks according to performance requirements. Internally referenced data shows that Claude models from Anthropic outperform GPT-4o by 15% on complex spreadsheet analyses, while Haiku variants handle high‐volume email drafting at 30% lower latency. This multi‐model approach, supported by new sales incentives—treating third‐party model deployments on Azure as equal to in-house software—has helped Azure capture an additional 4% share of the enterprise AI cloud market in the fourth quarter of 2025.
4. Annual Microsoft Spend on Anthropic Nears $500 Million
According to people familiar with the matter, Microsoft is on track to allocate approximately $500 million annually to Anthropic for access to Claude AI inside its productivity suite and Azure platform. This spend follows a preliminary $5 billion equity and credit commitment announced last September, alongside cumulative investments exceeding $13 billion in OpenAI. Microsoft has also introduced quota‐driven incentives for its Azure salesforce, equating Anthropic model sales with Microsoft’s own AI services, a move expected to boost Anthropic‐related revenues by 20% in fiscal 2026.