France is expected to become the first enforcer of European antitrust regulations against tech giant Nvidia.
Reuters, citing people with direct knowledge of the matter, reports that the French antitrust regulator is expected to charge Nvidia with anti-competitive practices.
According to the source, the raids resulted from a broader inquiry into cloud computing that began in September last year.
However, the European Commission is unlikely to expand its preliminary review since the French authority is investigating Nvidia.
In a report issued last Friday on competition in the generative AI sector, the French watchdog cited the risk of abuse by chip providers and voiced concerns regarding the sector’s dependence on Nvidia’s CUDA chip programming software. This exclusive system is 100% compatible with the GPUs essential for accelerated computing.
It also raised concerns about Nvidia’s recent investments in AI-focused cloud service providers such as CoreWeave.
The world’s largest chip maker has triggered regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic as demand for its chips surged following the release of the generative AI application ChatGPT.
In a regulatory filing last year, the company said regulators in the European Union, China, and France had asked for information on its graphic cards.
Multiple sources reported that The U.S. Department of Justice is taking the lead in investigating Nvidia as it divvies up Big Tech scrutiny with the Federal Trade Commission, a source familiar with the matter has told Reuters.
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