French police raid Nvidia offices in antitrust probe: report
California-headquartered Nvidia, one of the global leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) chip production, was reportedly raided by police at its French office this week. The move comes as part of a broader inquiry by French antitrust authorities into the cloud computing sector.
The Wall Street Journal reported the raid on September 28, although neither Navy nor French law enforcement agencies have publicly commented on what happened.
A press release released on the website of the French antitrust agency Autorité de la Concurrence refers to an unexpected investigation into the graphics cards sector. According to the release, a judge allowed the raid on the grounds that the company “engaged in anti-competitive practices in the graphics cards sector.”
However, the raid itself “does not presuppose the existence of a violation of the law, which can be taken against the organization,” the message of the agency states.
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The Autorité de la Concurrence refers to its opinion, which summarizes a year of research into the field of cloud computing. The study, published in June 2023, does not mention Nvidia, but focuses on other technology companies, namely the three hyperscales Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. According to agency data, public cloud infrastructure and applications will represent 80% of spending growth in France by 2021:
By 2021, Amazon and Microsoft will capture 46% and 17% of revenue from IaaS and PaaS services, respectively. Given their financial capabilities and digital ecosystem, these hyperscalers are in a position to disrupt competitive development.
The agency is considering various options under national competition laws and European data law to combat this tendency.
Navia comes to the attention of regulators because of its unique position as a hardware developer for the innovative sectors of the digital industry. The company's recent quarterly report revealed that US regulators had asked it to restrict shipments of AI chips to “certain Middle Eastern countries”. A day later, the US Department of Commerce denied this information.
