The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Nvidia's acquisition of Israeli artificial intelligence startup Run:ai, suspecting possible antitrust violations. The move has attracted widespread attention, especially as U.S. regulators step up scrutiny of anti-competitive behavior in the field of artificial intelligence. The amount of the acquisition was undisclosed but is estimated to be approximately $700 million. The investigation includes whether the deal will suppress emerging competition and whether Nvidia's market dominance in the GPU field will be further consolidated. The editor of Downcodes will explain the whole incident in detail for you.
Recently, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Nvidia’s acquisition of Israeli artificial intelligence start-up Run:ai, suspecting possible antitrust violations. The news attracted widespread attention.
In April this year, Nvidia announced the acquisition, but the price was not disclosed. TechCrunch reports estimate the purchase price to be around $700 million. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked market participants about the competitive implications of the deal.
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At this time, the scope of the investigation is unclear. But the Justice Department has asked questions about whether the deal would stifle emerging competition and solidify Nvidia's dominant market position in the field.
On Thursday, Nvidia said the company "wins on merit" and "strictly complies with all laws." It also said it will continue to support aspiring innovators in various industries and markets and is willing to provide any information needed by regulators. Run:ai did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the Justice Department declined to comment.
Currently, U.S. regulators and law enforcement agencies are increasing scrutiny of anti-competitive behavior in the field of artificial intelligence, especially as it relates to large technology giants such as Nvidia. In June this year, Jonathan Kanter, head of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, told the Financial Times that he was reviewing “monopoly bottlenecks” including data used to train large language models and access to key hardware such as graphics processing unit chips. problem, noting that GPUs used to train large language models have become a "scarce resource."
Nvidia dominates sales of state-of-the-art GPUs. Run:ai previously collaborated with the tech giant and developed a platform that optimizes GPU usage.
As part of the investigation, the Justice Department is seeking information about how Nvidia decides on the distribution of its chips, Politico first reported. Government lawyers are also questioning Nvidia's software platform Cuda, which allows chips originally used for graphics processing to accelerate artificial intelligence applications and is regarded by industry insiders as one of Nvidia's most critical tools.
In June this year, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (competition regulator) reached an agreement to divide the antitrust supervision of key artificial intelligence players. The Justice Department will lead the investigation into Nvidia, while the Federal Trade Commission will oversee the evaluation of Microsoft and OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT.
Highlight:
? The U.S. Department of Justice investigates Nvidia’s acquisition of Run:ai for possible antitrust violations.
? The details of the transaction and the scope of the investigation are unknown, and Nvidia said it complies with the law.
? US regulatory agencies have strengthened anti-competition review in the AI field, and the two departments have divided supervision.
The results of the investigation into Nvidia's acquisition of Run:ai will have a profound impact on the artificial intelligence industry and will also sound a warning for the mergers and acquisitions of other large technology companies. The editor of Downcodes will continue to pay attention to the progress of the incident and bring the latest reports to readers.