Washington is taking aim at Big Tech's newest merger workaround. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and two Democratic colleagues just demanded federal regulators investigate a wave of multibillion-dollar AI talent deals that let companies like Nvidia, Meta, and Google gobble up startup teams without triggering traditional antitrust reviews. The letter to the FTC and DOJ, shared with CNBC, calls these arrangements "reverse acqui-hiring" and argues they function as de facto mergers designed to dodge regulatory scrutiny.
The regulatory heat on Big Tech's AI hiring spree just jumped several degrees. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Richard Blumenthal dropped a letter Wednesday demanding the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice investigate whether Nvidia, Meta, and Google are using multibillion-dollar talent deals to dodge antitrust scrutiny.
The timing couldn't be more pointed. These so-called "reverse acqui-hire" arrangements have exploded over the past year as tech giants race to lock down top AI talent without actually buying the companies they work for. Meta paid $14.3 billion in June to bring Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang into its orbit. Google dropped $2.4 billion in July for a nonexclusive licensing deal with Windsurf that conveniently brought key leaders along. And Nvidia closed a $20 billion asset purchase from AI chipmaker Groq in December, scooping up senior executives in the process.
"These deals function as de facto mergers, allowing the companies to consolidate talent, information, and resources, all while apparently attempting to bypass the scrutiny typically applied to mergers and acquisitions," the senators wrote in their letter to Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, according to .
