Exclusive-Nvidia to face French antitrust charges, sources say

Author: Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Nvidia will be charged by France’s antitrust watchdog for alleged anti-competitive practices, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, making Nvidia the first authority to take action against the computer chip maker.

France’s so-called statement of objections, or charge sheet, would follow raids in the graphics card sector last September, which sources said targeted Nvidia. The raids were the result of a broader investigation into cloud computing.

The world’s largest maker of chips used in both artificial intelligence and computer graphics has seen demand for its chips soar following the release of its AI-generating app ChatGPT, which has sparked regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.

The French body, which publishes some but not all of the companies’ dissent, and Nvidia declined to comment. The company said in a regulatory filing last year that regulators in the European Union, China and France had requested information about its graphics cards.

The European Commission is unlikely to expand on its initial assessment for now as French authorities look into Nvidia, other people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The French regulator, in a report published last Friday on competition in the field of generative artificial intelligence, highlighted the risk of abuse by chip suppliers.

The company has raised concerns about the sector’s dependence on Nvidia’s CUDA programming software, the only system that is 100% compatible with the GPUs that have become essential for accelerated computing.

The report also highlighted concern over Nvidia’s recent investments in AI-focused cloud service providers such as CoreWeave.

Companies risk fines of as much as 10% of their global annual turnover for violating French antitrust laws, although they can also provide concessions to avoid fines.

The U.S. Department of Justice is taking the lead in investigating Nvidia while sharing control of big tech companies with the Federal Trade Commission, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Holmes)