The FTC is examining Amazon's partnership with AI company Adept.

• Amazon's partnership with AI startup Adept is being scrutinized by the FTC for more information, according to CNBC.
• In June, Adept's top talent was hired by Amazon, and the company's technology is being licensed.
• Tech companies' AI investments and partnerships are increasingly under scrutiny by regulators in the U.S. and abroad.

CNBC has confirmed that the Federal Trade Commission has launched an informal inquiry into Amazon's recently announced deal with AI startup Adept.

An FTC official has requested additional details about the recent agreement between Amazon and Adept, in which Amazon hired top executives and obtained technology from the company, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The FTC and Adept did not respond to a request for comment on the probe, which was first reported by Reuters. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the investigation.

As regulators worldwide intensify their examination of tech companies' collaborations with AI startups, the FTC has launched an investigation into Amazon's recent AI investments, while the Department of Justice is scrutinizing the leading manufacturer of chips used in the AI industry.

The UK's competition authority announced on Tuesday that it has launched an investigation into Microsoft's recruitment of top talent from startup Inflection AI. In April, the agency published a report warning that partnerships like the one between Microsoft and Inflection AI, as well as Amazon and AI startup Anthropic, could allow them to "dominate these markets in their own interests."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and other lawmakers have cited Amazon's acquisition of Adept as evidence of tech companies using licensing or acquihires to evade antitrust investigations.

Last month, Amazon announced an agreement that included the hiring of Adept co-founder and CEO David Luan and other talented team members to work on its artificial general intelligence unit. Additionally, Amazon agreed to license Adept's technology, multimodal models, and some datasets.

In a blog post last month, Adept stated that developing its own AI models would have required more capital. However, the Amazon deal will enable the company to concentrate on developing AI agents.

Amazon's latest high-profile AI bet is the Adept deal, which comes after the company has invested billions of dollars into OpenAI competitor Anthropic and developed generative AI products across its cloud computing, retail, and consumer electronics businesses.

-- CNBC's Hayden Field contributed reporting to this story.