British regulators have cleared Microsoft's hiring of key staff from the AI startup Inflection, stating that the move will not stifle competition within the UK's artificial intelligence market. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) conducted a preliminary investigation into the recruitment of Inflection's core team, concluding that it constituted a 'merger situation' but did not pose a significant risk to competition, as Inflection holds a very small share of the UK chatbot market. Microsoft had previously hired nearly all of Inflection's team, including co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, and licensed its intellectual property for AI model development. Despite concerns over big tech's talent acquisition strategies, the CMA emphasized that Inflection's products lacked features that would make them more competitive against established rivals. Reports indicate that Microsoft paid approximately $650 million as part of this arrangement, allowing Inflection to compensate its investors. This decision comes amid increased scrutiny of similar practices by other tech giants, including Amazon's talent acquisition from Adept earlier this year.