FTC cloud market inquiry remains unresolved as US presidential race enters final stretch

It will be up to the new administration to determine the trajectory of the FTC’s regulatory efforts and its impact on cloud.

“If Lina Khan still chairs the FTC, there likely will be follow-up,” Steven Ward, resident privacy and security fellow on the cybersecurity and emerging threats team at R Street Institute, said in an email.

Ward pointed to Khan’s remarks at a January FTC Tech Summit as an indication of policy direction. While she focused primarily on the rapid deployment of AI, she said the agency was taking “a close look across the AI stack” to determine whether the dominant cloud providers were positioned to block competition…

There are also differences in the framing around AI versus cloud. AI is viewed largely as a safety threat. Cloud, in contrast, is seen through the lens of larger market forces and cybersecurity risks.

“The FTC has traditionally centered its cloud computing concerns around market power of cloud companies and potential security risks they pose,” Ward said.