French competition watchdog probes Nvidia

France’s competition watchdog told AFP on Wednesday it is probing US tech giant and AI chip maker Nvidia over alleged anti-competitive practices although no notification of a complaint is immediately in the offing.

“There will be a notice of objections — but it is not imminent,” the president of the regulator, Benoit Coeure, told journalists Tuesday in response to reports by Reuters that the body was preparing to pursue the firm for anti-competitive behaviour.

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The French competition watchdog carried out a search of Nvidia’s Paris office.

Nvidia did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

The US semiconductor designer recently joined a highly exclusive band of companies alongside Apple and Microsoft stock market valuations in excess of $3 trillion.

The group’s ascendency comes thanks to its production of graphics processing units (GPUs). The units designed to help personal computers handle the heavy work of rendering graphics also means they are good for the gigantic amount of calculations required for the development of generative AI programmes which can create text, music, images or video in response to a simple query.

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Thousands of its GPUs have trained the ChatGPT interface launched in November 2022, since when Nvidia’s shares have soared eightfold.

Last month, France’s competition watchdog expressed concern over the field of artificial intelligence.

“It is essential that the sector’s competitive functioning is favourable to innovation and allows the presence of a multiplicity of players,” the institution said in offering an advisory opinion.

© Agence France-Presse