The judge presiding over an anti-trust case against Google, brought by the US Department of Justice and state attorneys, is debating whether he should sanction the search behemoth over what the DoJ has termed "routine, regular, and normal destruction" of evidence.
Microsoft decided to invest in OpenAI after a warning from a company official that Google had taken a big lead in the technology, Ars Technica reports.
US Government lawyers have claimed Google pays out more than US$10 billion (A$15.6 billion) each year to ensure it is the default search engine on mobile phones and PCs, as the biggest anti-trust trial against the company kicked off in Washington on Tuesday.
A federal judge in Washington has cleared the way for a government lawsuit against Google over alleged blocking of competition in the search market to proceed from 12 September.
The anti-trust suit filed by the US against Google in October is unlikely to make any progress, judging by the kind of people whom US president-elect Joe Biden is taking onboard as part of his transition team and also in technology roles.