Nvidia, one of the leading graphics chip producers in the world, has been raided by French police over alleged monopolistic practises.
Nvidia has been rocketing in value, powered by the exponential growth of Artificial Intelligence. The Wall Street Journal reports:
France’s competition authority raided Nvidia’s local offices this week on suspicion the company engaged in anticompetitive practices, the first significant regulatory scrutiny the company has faced since its rise to be the paramount supplier of artificial intelligence chips.
The French competition authority, which disclosed the dawn raid on Wednesday, didn’t say what practices it was investigating or which company it had targeted, beyond saying it was in the “graphics cards sector.” But people familiar with the raid said the operation had targeted Nvidia, which is the world’s largest maker of chips used both for artificial intelligence and for computer graphics.
Nvidia’s targeting could be a legitimate operation, but it could also be an attempt at protectionism. Dexerto continues:
“Following authorization from a judge of liberty and detention, the investigation services of the French Competition Authority conducted a dawn raid at the premises of a company suspected of having implemented anticompetitive practices in the graphics cards sector,” they said.
“This is part of the focus put on the cloud by the French Competition Authority, which was the subject of an opinion on competition in its sector published on June 29, 2023. Such dawn raids do not presuppose the existence of a violation of the law that could be attributed to the company involved in the alleged practices, which only a full investigation into the merits of the case could establish, if appropriate.”
Unlike Common Law countries, France and other Civil Law countries authorize investigations and seizures prior to formal charging. The investigating judge could rule that there is no additional evidence and drop the case.
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