Microsoft seeks dismissal of ChatGPT price suit

Microsoft has asked a federal judge in California to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of helping keep ChatGPT prices artificially high for paying subscribers. (courtlistener.com) The proposed class action, filed on October 13, 2025 in the Northern District of California, says Microsoft used an Azure exclusivity arrangement with OpenAI to restrict computing supply and raise costs for ChatGPT users. Judge P. Casey Pitts heard Microsoft’s motion to dismiss and motion to compel arbitration on April 9, 2026 and took both under submission. (classaction.org, justia.com) Microsoft’s argument, as described in coverage of the filing, is that subscribers cannot show direct antitrust injury and that any dispute belongs in arbitration rather than federal court. OpenAI’s consumer terms include dispute-resolution provisions tied to arbitration. (msn.com, openai.com) The case reaches beyond one $20-a-month subscription. It tests whether a cloud provider’s investment, infrastructure control and commercial ties to an artificial intelligence lab can be treated as a competition problem when the lab also sells directly to consumers. (openai.com, ftc.gov) That question has been building since January 17, 2025, when the Federal Trade Commission published a staff report on Microsoft-OpenAI, Amazon-Anthropic and Alphabet-Anthropic partnerships. The agency said those deals can create lock-in, raise switching costs, affect access to computing and talent, and give cloud companies access to sensitive business information. (ftc.gov) A separate policy argument now goes further than the lawsuit. In an April 13, 2026 essay, Tech Policy Press said Microsoft’s reported $13 billion commitment to OpenAI and similar arrangements across the sector can form a “hidden financial loop” in which cloud credits fund model training, the usage is booked as cloud revenue, and that revenue helps justify more investment. (techpolicy.press) The same essay points to parallel structures elsewhere in artificial intelligence. It cites Google and Amazon’s ties to Anthropic, and Nvidia-backed infrastructure companies that use fresh funding to buy more Nvidia chips, sending spending back to the supplier that financed the ecosystem. (techpolicy.press) OpenAI’s own infrastructure picture has changed since the lawsuit was filed. Reuters reported on June 10, 2025 that OpenAI finalized a deal to add Google Cloud capacity, reducing its exclusive reliance on Microsoft as demand for computing power kept rising. (usnews.com) The court fight now sits at the intersection of antitrust law and the economics of building artificial intelligence: who finances the compute, who controls the pipes, and who gets to count the demand. Judge Pitts has not yet ruled on Microsoft’s bid to end the case or move it to arbitration. (justia.com, ftc.gov)