The French market watchdog raided the French branch of Nvidia this week following an investigation into anti-competitive behavior. The Wall Street Journal writes this. The supervisor confirms that there has been a raid, but does not say who.
The French regulator Autorité de la concurrence says that earlier this week there was a raid on a company ‘active in the GPU market’. The watchdog suspects that this company has exhibited anti-competitive behavior within this industry, specifically in the cloud computing sector. The regulator does not provide any further details about the raid.
According to sources from The Wall Street Journal, it concerns Nvidia. During such a raid, the company’s premises are normally searched, computers and documents are examined and taken, and employees are interviewed. The French authority says it has received permission from a judge for the raid. The Autorité previously indicated that it was concerned about the cloud computing market and the extent to which large companies make it difficult for smaller players to gain a foothold. Nvidia is the world’s largest supplier of AI GPUs used in cloud computing to run artificial intelligence applications, a market that has seen significant growth recently.