Competition - AI Supply Chain

Guiding Questions

• How should policymakers balance promoting domestic AI competition against maintaining strategic advantages in global technology markets?
• What are the strengths and limitations of using national security tools (like export controls) versus market-based incentives to shape AI supply chains?
• How well do traditional antitrust frameworks apply to the unique characteristics of AI supply chains and development? What might need to change?

Guest

Lennart Heim

Required

Facts

• Dylan Sloan, This $362 billion ‘beyond well-positioned’ Dutch company is quietly winning the global AI chips race, Fortune (Apr. 18, 2024).
• Alex He, In the Global AI Chips Race, China Is Playing Catch-Up, CIGI (Sept. 18, 2024).
• Wayne Chang & Rosa de Acosta, What is high bandwidth memory and why is the US trying to block China's access to it?, CNN (Dec. 8, 2024).
  
  

Law

• [skim] Alexandra G. Neenan & Luke A. Nicastro, The Defense Production Act of 1950: History, Authorities, and Considerations for Congress, CRS (Oct. 6, 2023).
• Suggested focus - pages 1,4-8, 11-13.
• Kevin Schmidt & Thomas Kimbrell, Preventing Abuse of the Defense Production Act, AFP (Mar. 12, 2024).
• [Read Introduction, skim 2-9, 9-10, skim 11-16, 17], Gregory Allen, Understanding the Biden Administration's Updated Export Controls, CSIS (Dec. 11, 2024).
• Press Release, Biden White House, FACT SHEET: President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (Oct. 30, 2023). Read:
• The opening summary of key provisions
• The "New Standards for AI Safety and Security" section
• The "Protecting Americans' Privacy" section
• The "Promoting Innovation and Competition" section
• Press Release, Biden White House, FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Outlines Coordinated Approach to Harness Power of AI for U.S. National Security (Oct. 24, 2024)
• Michelle Kurilla, What Is the CHIPS Act?, CFR (Apr. 29, 2024)

Application

• Andrew Freeborn, New Tech, Old Theories: The DOJ Antitrust Division's Workshop on Artificial Intelligence, Axinn (July 15, 2024).
• Hodan Omaar, Comments to the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division Regarding Promoting Competition in AI, ITIF (July 15, 2024).
• Sheila F. Anthony, Vertical Issues in Federal Antitrust Law, FTC (Mar. 19, 1998).

Optional

• Listen: Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Lawfare Daily: The Antitrust Implications of AI Systems with David Lawrence, Lawfare (Oct. 15, 2024).

Guiding Questions

• How does the current wave of AI investments and partnerships by Big Tech companies challenge traditional merger review frameworks? What tools do regulators have to address these challenges?
• What role should potential future market concentration play in evaluating current AI mergers and partnerships, particularly given the rapid pace of technological development?

Guest

Thom Lambert

Required

Facts

• Brian Fung and Catherine Thorbecke, Lina Khan’s rise was heralded as an antitrust revolution. Now she has to pull it off CNN (Oct. 17, 2023).
• Anousha Sakoui, Anirban Sen and Kane Wu, Dealmakers eye $4 trillion-plus M&A haul in 2025 on Trump boost, Reuters (Dec. 19, 2024).
• Alexis Keenan, Trump 1.0 was as tough on M&A as Biden. Trump 2.0 may not be different, AOL (Nov. 12, 2024).
• Paul Sawers, Big Tech companies are plowing money into AI startups, which could help them dodge antitrust concerns, Tech Crunch (May 24, 2024).

Law

• [skim] Competition Counts, FTC (May, 2015).
• Cornell Law Wex, antitrust laws, (Oct. 2024).
• [skim pages 1-4] Updated Merger Guidelines, DOJ (Dec. 2023).
• Steven C. Sunshine et al., DOJ and FTC Release Final 2023 Merger Guidelines Formalizing Aggressive Merger Enforcement Playbook, Skadden (Dec. 21, 2024).

Application

• Joint Statement on Competition in Generative AI Foundation Models and AI Products, FTC and DOJ (Jul. 23, 2024).
• FTC Launches Inquiry into Generative AI Investments and Partnerships, FTC (Jan. 25, 2024).
• Kif Leswing, FTC Chair Lina Khan takes victory lap on blocking Nvidia-Arm merger, CNBC (Feb. 27, 2024).
• [pages 40-50] Tejas Narechania & Ganesh Sitaraman, An Anti Monopoly approach to Governing Artificial Intelligence, Vanderbilt Law School (Oct. 2023).

Guiding Questions

• How do historical examples like the Microsoft and AT&T antitrust cases inform current debates about promoting innovation while preventing anti-competitive behavior in AI development?
• What are the relative merits of "permissionless innovation" versus more structured industrial policy approaches in accelerating AI progress while managing potential risks?
• How should policymakers balance federal support for AI innovation (through initiatives like NAIRR) with concerns about market concentration and competition from both established tech companies and new entrants?

Guest

Adam Thierer

Required

Facts

• [pages 1-21] Adam Thierer, Permissionless Innovation: The Continuing Case for Comprehensive Technological Freedom, Mercatus Center (March 11, 2016).
• Adam Thierer, Open-ended antitrust is an Innovation Killer, The Hill, (Feb. 25, 2021).
• WSJ video, What Facebook, Google and Others Can Learn From Microsoft’s Antitrust Case, WSJ (2019).
• Christopher S. Yoo, The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective The Enduring Lessons of the Breakup of AT&T: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospective, University of Pennsylvania Law School (Dec. 2008).
• [skim 6-12, read pages 12-15 starting at AT&T, 23-24] Robert W Crandall and Clifford Winston, Does Antitrust Policy Improve Consumer Welfare? Assessing the Evidence, Brookings (Apr. 2004).

Law

• [read “Common Interpretation”, skim “For a Broad Spending Power” and “Putting the 'General' Back in the General Welfare Clause”] Samuel R. Bagenstos and Frank G. Millard, The spending Clause, American Constitution Center
• Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman, Is Industrial Policy Making a Comeback?, CFR (Sept. 2023).
• [skim] Ruchir Agarwal, Industrial Policy and the Growth Strategy Trilemma, IMF (Mar. 21. 2023).

Application

• Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, The Little Tech Agenda (Jul. 5, 2024).
• Jason Bates, U.S. NAIRR pilot brings cutting-edge AI resources to researchers and educators across the nation, NSF (Oct. 16, 2024)
• Ganesh Sitaraman and Natalie Foster, How States Can Keep Big Tech from Dominating AI, Politico (Mar. 13, 2024)

Optional

• Jennifer Huddleston, The Misguided Antitrust Investigations in AI, Cato Institute (Sept.13, 2024)

(Coming Soon)