Following an earlier raid, Nvidia can now most likely expect a comprehensive investigation by the French market regulator.

The French Competition Authority has had Nvidia in its sights for some time. In September, the company unexpectedly raided Nvidia as part of a broader investigation into the cloud industry. The agency clearly announced the results of the investigation last Friday I blame! to Nvidia.

The authority identifies “a number of potential risks” that could limit fair competition in the cloud and AI industry. Price fixing, production restrictions, unfair contract terms and discriminatory behavior are under discussion. The authority is also concerned about Nvidia’s software dominance with the CUDA platform and the company’s recent investments and acquisitions of smaller players in the industry.

It is not written in black and white that the French market regulator will take further action against Nvidia, but it now seems almost inevitable. A possible next step is another antitrust investigation. Companies can expect fines of up to 10 percent of their annual global turnover if they violate French antitrust regulations. When you know that Nvidia has quarterly sales of more than twenty billion dollars, that could be a hefty penalty.

White knight

It was written in the stars that Nvidia would sooner or later be targeted by regulators. The company has become the face of the AI ​​boom and we cannot go to a technology trade fair without Nvidia taking a leading role. The success also led to an unprecedented rapid rise in the stock market. On June 18, Nvidia even briefly became the most valuable company in the world, but has now had to hand this title back to Microsoft.

In addition to France, the USA and China also have Nvidia on their radar, although France could be the first country to file formal charges. France often takes on the role of white knight against American tech bosses on behalf of Europe. In the recent past, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Amazon, among others, have been fined millions of euros.

The European Commission itself conducted a preparatory survey on Nvidia, but may now leave this to France for the time being. Nvidia is not responding to the accusations of the French authority for the time being.