According to Reuters today, in response to rumours that the EU launched an early investigation into Nvidia some time ago, a spokesman for the EU executive responded to an inquiry email from Reuters: “The European Commission has not investigated you. The issues raised will be formally investigated.”
A brief summary: Bloomberg reported at the end of last month that according to “people familiar with the situation”, the European Union is launching an early investigation into suspected “anti-competitive” abuses in the AI chip market, in which Nvidia dominates.
Sources said French authorities have also launched a similar investigation and interviewed market participants on Nvidia’s key role in the field of AI chips, pricing policy, and the impact of chip shortages on prices.
Prior to this, the French antitrust agency recently conducted a raid on a company suspected of engaging in anti-competitive behaviour in the graphics card industry. The company was later identified as Nvidia by the Wall Street Journal. France’s competition authority clarified that such raids do not imply a violation of the law but are part of a thorough process of investigating the merits of the case.
