French antitrust authorities reportedly preparing lawsuit against NVIDIA, AI infrastructure market monopoly may have sparked outrage
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Reuters reported that French regulators are preparing to accuse American semiconductor manufacturer NVIDIA of anti-competitive practices. While the specific reasons for the accusations are unclear, it has been pointed out that the company's near monopoly in the field of AI infrastructure has displeased the authorities.
Exclusive: Nvidia set to face French antitrust charges, sources say | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/french-antitrust-regulators-preparing-nvidia-charges-sources-say-2024-07-01/
France poised to bring 'charges against Nvidia' • The Register
Reuters reported on July 2, 2024, citing people familiar with the matter, that France's antitrust authorities are set to file charges against NVIDIA, becoming the first enforcement agency to take action against the company.
The lawsuit is said to be following a raid on NVIDIA's French offices in September 2023. The investigation was conducted under the pretext of investigating the current state of the GPU industry, but according to sources, it was aimed at targeting NVIDIA.
It is unclear what charges the French authorities will bring, but Reuters noted that 'a surge in chip demand following the release of ChatGPT has brought the world's largest chipmaker, Nvidia, under the scrutiny of regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.'
The Register, an IT news site that covered the report, stated, 'Advances in AI have made Nvidia a major supplier of GPUs and high-speed networks for training AI models. It's estimated that Nvidia's share of the AI infrastructure market exceeds 80%, which appears to have angered France's antitrust authorities.'
Meanwhile, neither the French authorities nor NVIDIA have commented, but in regulatory filings in 2023, NVIDIA reported that it had received requests for information about its graphics cards from authorities in the EU, China and France.
The people said the EU is unlikely to expand its preliminary investigation further because French regulators are also investigating Nvidia.
Prior to the reports, French authorities had expressed concerns in June 2024 about the AI industry's reliance on NVIDIA's CUDA , the only system that is fully compatible with GPUs, which are essential for fast computing. The authorities also took issue with NVIDIA's ongoing investments in AI-focused cloud service providers such as CoreWeave.
If NVIDIA is found to be in violation of French antitrust laws, it could face fines of up to 10% of its global revenue, but it could make concessions to avoid the fines.
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