Nvidia targeted in French antitrust allegations

Chip manufacturer Nvidia He is reportedly facing charges of violating antitrust laws in France.

The pending charges by the French competition authority will follow a raid on Nvidia’s offices last year, Reuters reports. reported Monday (July 1), citing sources familiar with the matter.

Nvidia has seen a boom in recent months thanks to demand for its chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications, but as Reuters noted, that has sparked scrutiny from regulators Around the World.

An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment to PYMNTS.

According to Reuters, the company disclosed in a 2023 regulatory filing that the European Union, China AND France has requested information regarding its graphics cards.

Reuters sources say the European Commission is unlikely to expand its review for now, as the French regulator investigates Nvidia. The French watchdog published a report last week on competition in generative AI and pointed to the risk of abuse by chip companies.

Reuters reported that the report raised concerns about the sector’s dependence on Nvidia CUDA programming software, the only system that is entirely compatible with graphics processors, which have become essential for accelerated computations.

Last year’s raid was part of wider investigation to the cloud computing industry. Nvidia also faced control in Europe in connection with the planned acquisition of British integrated circuit company Arm.

As recently noted, Nvidia is in close competition with Microsoft AND Apple for the title of world champion the most valuable company. Companies like Nvidia have seen their market capitalizations grow on the wave of investor interest that has led to the AI ​​boom.

Last week, the company held a general meeting of shareholders, at which the chairman of the board Jensen Huang Nvidia said has has taken a number of steps to maintain its dominant position on the market field Artificial intelligence.

Huang told investors that the company had already “transformed” from a gaming-focused company to a data center-focused company.

He added that Nvidia is working with computer makers and cloud service providers to create new markets for its AI.; and offers integrated circuits whose performance and operating costs make them more advantageous than others that may be cheaper to purchase.

Huang said that Nvidia has also achieved “vicious circle” in which the number of customers it has allows you to create products that attract even more customers.

“The Nvidia platform is widely available from every major cloud provider and PC manufacturer, which creates a large and attractive install base for developers and customers, making our platform more valuable to our customers,” Huang said.

His comments were quoted by CNBC, which noted that Nvidia has more than 80% of the AI ​​chip market.

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