The US government is investigating Nvidia.

Nvidia is the target of a new investigation by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ is looking into Nvidia’s dominance in the AI ​​market through its graphics cards, and in particular whether it used its dominant lead of over 80% of that market to block competitors from entering it, The Information reports.

On July 30, multiple U.S. groups called on the Justice Department to open an investigation into Nvidia, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. The letter to the Justice Department cited Nvidia’s control over 80% of all GPUs worldwide, specifically its 98% dominance of the data center market. “Nvidia’s size means it now controls the world’s computing destiny, giving it dangerous leverage over the global economy,” the letter reads.

DOJ is reportedly talking to Nvidia’s competitors, including companies like AMD. According to Reuters, the investigation has several major components. First, DOJ is looking into Nvidia’s bundling of software and hardware. CUDA is the foundational platform that underpins the AI ​​market, and it runs exclusively on Nvidia hardware. The software stack has made it nearly impossible for competitors to enter the AI ​​market, and projects that attempt to port or bypass CUDA have been met with resistance from Nvidia.

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The investigation also looks into whether Nvidia charges customers more for additional data center hardware if they buy GPUs from competitors like AMD and Intel. In the past, we’ve seen AMD executives refer to Nvidia as the “GPU cartel.” Jonathan Ross, CEO of AI chip company Groq, said that “a lot of people we meet with say that if Nvidia found out we were meeting, they would deny it… you could get your hardware in a year, or it could take longer, and it’s, ‘Oh, you’re buying from someone else, and I think it’s going to take a little longer.’”

This isn’t the first time Nvidia has run afoul of the U.S. government. In 2021, the company was sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its deal to buy chip designer ARM for $40 billion. Like the Justice Department investigation, the FTC cited antitrust concerns in its lawsuit.

The Justice Department is currently investigating only Nvidia, but could pursue a lawsuit if it finds antitrust violations.