The French competition authority, Autorité De La Concurrence, recently inspected the premises of GPU inventor Nvidia due to potential anticompetitive practices within the artificial intelligence chip market.
Nvidia currently dominates the AI chip market and according to Bloomberg, The European Commission has been gathering feedback informally regarding potential abusive practices in the GPU sector, which serves both AI applications and gaming. This inquiry aims to assess whether there is a necessity for future regulatory action.
However, this early-stage investigation may never result in an official probe or even lead to penalties. According to the organisation in a post, “Such dawn raids do not pre-suppose the existence of a breach of the law which could be imputed to the company involved in the alleged practices, which only a full investigation into the merits of the case could establish, if appropriate.”
Nvidia at the top
The chip maker currently holds approximately 80% share in the GPU market and is known for its near-monopoly, but chose not to provide a statement on the matter. Similarly, The European Commission did not offer an immediate response to requests for comments from multiple media outlets.
French authorities have been in discussions with industry stakeholders regarding Nvidia’s pivotal position in AI chip production, its pricing strategies, chip shortages, and the resulting price implications, as per the report.
Following the remarkable ascent of the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT last year, Nvidia experienced a surge in stock value and a heightened demand for its chips. Nvidia’s chips are integrated into nearly all global systems that fuel applications such as ChatGPT, underscoring its status as the sole trillion-dollar semiconductor company on the planet.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
