According to a report on Sept. 28, the French Competition Authority has taken action against Nvidia, a major player in the graphics card industry, alleging anticompetitive practices.
On September 27, the French Competition Authority (Autorité de la Concurrence) issued a press statement announcing that it had obtained a judge’s authorization to conduct a raid on the premises of a company suspected of engaging in anticompetitive practices in the graphics cards sector.
In its statement, Autorité emphasized that its investigation into the company does not “pre-suppose the existence of a breach of the law which could be imputed to the company involved in the alleged practices.”
Nvidia has not yet publicly responded to the Competition Authority’s actions or the press statement.
The raid is just one component of a broader investigation into cloud computing companies and their utilization of computing power to gain an unfair advantage over smaller competitors. The Authority stated:
“Competition authorities will have to monitor that established players do not hinder the development of smaller or new players based on these technologies.”
In its June report, the Competition Authority indicated that the three largest cloud computing companies – Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure – control more than 70% of the market.
The regulator reported that the three major cloud computing companies, often referred to as hyperscalers, accounted for approximately 80% of the spending on public cloud infrastructure and applications in 2021.
However, Autorité asserted that it possesses the tools and authority necessary to safeguard competition and enforce regulations in the cloud computing industry.
While the Competition Authority’s report on the cloud computing industry does not mention Nvidia, the Authority has previously scrutinized the company due to its dominant market position and partnerships with major cloud computing companies.
Observers have expressed concerns that Nvidia’s control of the GPU market could potentially rise to as high as 90% once the company introduces its next generation of hardware.
