According to Securities Times on July 2nd, chip manufacturer Nvidia is facing increasing regulatory scrutiny. According to sources cited by the media, French regulatory authorities will file an antitrust lawsuit against Nvidia, making it the world's first law enforcement agency to take antitrust action against the company.
This accusation was made after a surprise inspection of Nvidia's office in 2023.
In September 2023, French antitrust enforcement officers raided the office of a company suspected of engaging in "anti competitive behavior in the graphics card industry.". At that time, they did not specify that the company was NVIDIA, but NVIDIA later admitted that France was reviewing its business practices. Nvidia stated in a document that officials from the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom are also reviewing its business operations. The fine for violating French antitrust laws can reach up to 10% of the company's global annual revenue. It is understood that the maximum fine imposed by the French antitrust agency since 2011 was 1.24 billion euros in 2020, of which Apple was fined 1.1 billion euros, and the remaining portion was fined to two distributors.
In November 2023, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Mer stated that Nvidia's dominant position has led to "increased inequality" between countries and suppressed fair competition. He pointed out that 92% of GPUs come from Nvidia. Bruno Lemaire said, "To achieve fair competition, it is necessary to have multiple companies involved, rather than having one company monopolize the sales of all equipment."
According to Shanghai Securities News, French regulatory authorities released a report on generative AI competition last Friday, mentioning the risk of chip suppliers abusing their dominant market position. This report points out the industry's reliance on NVIDIA CUDA chip programming software and expresses concerns about it, as it is the only system that is fully compatible with the GPU required for accelerated computing. The report also mentioned that Nvidia has recently invested in cloud service providers focused on AI, such as CoreWeave, which has made regulatory authorities uneasy.
According to French antitrust regulations, companies that violate antitrust laws may face fines of up to 10% of their global annual revenue, but companies can also make concessions to avoid fines.
In addition, the United States and the European Union are also reviewing Nvidia's business. It is reported that in Brussels, the European Commission has been informally collecting opinions to determine whether Nvidia may also have violated EU antitrust regulations, but it has not yet launched a formal investigation into monopolistic behavior. The US Department of Justice is also leading an investigation into Nvidia.
On Monday local time, Nvidia's stock price fell nearly 4% at one point, then turned higher and finally closed up 0.62% at $124.30 per share, with a market value of $3.06 trillion.
Daily Economic News Comprehensive Securities Times, Shanghai Securities News
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