The US Department of Justice is investigating Nvidia’s acquisition of Run:ai, an Israeli artificial intelligence startup, for potential antitrust violations, according to a report by the Financial Times. The DOJ has been in discussions with third parties to assess the competitive impact of the transaction, which Nvidia announced in April without disclosing the purchase price. A report from TechCrunch estimated the deal at $700 million.
The extent of the investigation remains unclear, but inquiries are focusing on whether the acquisition could stifle emerging competition in the burgeoning AI sector and solidify Nvidia’s dominant position in the market.
Nvidia, in response to the investigation, stated the company “wins on merit” and commits to “scrupulously adhering to all laws.” The tech giant added, “We’ll continue to support aspiring innovators in every industry and market and are happy to provide any information regulators need.” Run:ai and the DOJ declined immediate comment.
The probe reflects the heightened scrutiny US regulators have been applying to potential anti-competitive behaviors in the AI industry, particularly among significant technology firms. Jonathan Kanter, head of the DOJ’s antitrust division, highlighted in June that his office is examining “monopoly choke points” in areas such as data used to train large language models and access to essential hardware like graphics processing unit (GPU) chips. Kanter noted that GPUs required for training AI models have become a “scarce resource.”
Nvidia is a dominant player in the market for advanced GPUs, and Run:ai, which already had a collaboration with Nvidia, has developed a platform to optimize GPU usage. As part of its investigation, the DOJ is seeking information on Nvidia’s chip allocation decisions and its Cuda software platform, which facilitates AI applications by transforming graphics chips to speed up computational tasks.
The investigation, initially reported by Politico, coincides with an agreement reached in June between the DOJ and the US Federal Trade Commission to divide antitrust oversight of critical AI players. Under this arrangement, the DOJ will lead probes into Nvidia, while the FTC will oversee inquiries into Microsoft and OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.