Nvidia to face French antitrust charges, sources say

Nvidia is set to be charged by France’s antitrust watchdog for alleged anti-competitive practices, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, the first time the regulator has taken action against the company.

France’s so-called statement of opposition, or chargesheet, would follow raids in 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 surge following the launch of its AI app ChatGPT, prompting heightened 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.

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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 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. Justice Department 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.