Sources say Exclusive-Nvidia will face French antitrust charges

Author: Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Nvidia is set to be charged by France’s antitrust regulator for allegedly anti-competitive practices, people with direct knowledge of the matter say, making it the first enforcement authority to move against the company.

The French so-called statement of objections, or charge sheet, was allegedly issued after dawn raids on the graphics card sector last September that 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.

French authorities 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 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 chip programming software, the only system 100% compatible with graphics processors, which have become essential for accelerated computing.

The report also noted concerns over Nvidia’s recent investments in AI-focused cloud providers such as CoreWeave.

Companies risk fines of up to 10% of their annual global turnover for violating French antitrust rules, although they can also make certain concessions to avoid punishment.

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)

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