Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in the US government’s antitrust trial against Google, warning of a potential “nightmare” scenario for the internet if Google’s dominant position in online search continues. Nadella criticized Google for blocking consumer access to rival search engines and emphasized their extensive agreements with companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine. He expressed concerns that Google’s access to enormous amounts of search data could give them an unassailable advantage in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in generative AI. Nadella also highlighted the challenges faced by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which has struggled to grow its market share due to Google’s data advantage.
Nadella discussed how Google’s dominance in search extends beyond defaults on desktop and mobile devices, mentioning their agreements with content publishers to secure exclusive access to their material for AI training. He raised concerns about the potential limitations on publicly available data for AI training and criticized Google’s use of “carrots and sticks” to maintain default usage of their products, such as making Google’s Play Store a required installed app for Android users. Nadella acknowledged that Google’s dominant position in search is reinforced by websites and publishers optimizing for Google’s search algorithm, advertisers favoring Google, and users sticking with what they are familiar with.
In his negotiations with Apple, Nadella has attempted to persuade them to switch from Google to Bing as the default search provider, arguing that Bing provides a counterweight to Google and that Apple should consider investing in Microsoft’s alternative for the sake of competition. He proposed running Bing on Apple devices as a “public utility” and questioned whether Google would continue to pay Apple if Bing exited the market. Nadella’s testimony underscored the rivalry between Microsoft and Google and the challenges Microsoft faces in trying to compete with Google’s dominant position in online search.