Regulators set to file antitrust charges against Nvidia – channelnews

Days after Nvidia became the world’s most valuable company, with its share price doubling this year to give it a valuation of more than A$4.51 trillion, the company could face an antitrust complaint.

French competition authorities are preparing to indict the world’s most valuable chipmaker for alleged anti-competitive practices, sources say Reuters Agency.

If true, it would be the first such action by any global regulator. The charge sheet — or statement of opposition — follows a raid on Nvidia’s offices last year.

Last September, French authorities raided the offices of a company suspected of engaging in “anti-competitive practices in the graphics card sector.” Regulators did not name the company, but Nvidia acknowledged that France and others were investigating its business practices. Nvidia said the French agency “collected information from us regarding our activities and competition in the graphics card and cloud service provider markets as part of an ongoing investigation into competition in those markets.”

However, regulators at the time noted that the raids did not mean the company had broken the law. “The raids do not presuppose a breach of the law,” the competition authority said in a statement at the time, “which only a full investigation into the merits of the case, if appropriate, can determine.”

If the media reports are true, French regulators have concluded that Nvidia broke regulations.

Nvidia has capitalized on the AI ​​boom. Its chips are coveted by data center operators for their ability to handle the massive amounts of information required to develop AI models.

In November, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Nvidia’s dominance was causing “growing inequality” between countries and stifling fair competition, reports BloombergHe said 92 percent of GPUs come from Nvidia. “If you want to have fair competition, you have to have multiple private companies, not one that has the ability to sell all the devices.”

Fines for violating French antitrust law can be up to 10 percent of a company’s global annual revenue.

In February, Nvidia confirmed that authorities in the US, European Union, China and the UK were also investigating its operations. The specific allegations are not yet clear, but regulators are believed to be looking into the company’s GPU sales, efforts to secure supply and its investments.

In addition to France, the European Union, which is also investigating the business activities and competitive practices of big tech companies, may start taking a closer look at Nvidia and its practices.