In early June, when Nvidia became the world's second-largest company by market capitalization, the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reported that Nvidia was suspected of abusing its dominant position in the artificial intelligence chip (GPU) market, and the US Department of Justice would launch an antitrust investigation into it.
Recently, with the joint pressure from competitors AMD, AI chip startups, as well as progressive groups and Democratic senators in the United States, Nvidia has become increasingly embroiled in this antitrust investigation storm.
AMD and others complain about Nvidia bundling
The Information, a US technology website, quoted two insiders as saying that the US Department of Justice has recently received complaints from Nvidia's competitors, including AMD and AI chip startups, regarding Nvidia's threat to punish customers who also purchase its competitors' products, as well as Nvidia's recent acquisition of startups to strengthen its control over software used by AI developers. The US Department of Justice is collecting relevant information and conducting an investigation.
According to market analysis, Nvidia has a market share of over 90% in the data center GPU market, almost monopolizing this field. Such a high market share gives Nvidia a great say in pricing, sales strategies, and other aspects, which may harm the interests of competitors and customers.
Some employees of Nvidia clients have revealed that if their company also purchases chips from competitors such as AMD, Nvidia may raise prices or limit sales quantities.
A representative of a competitor of Nvidia accused the US Department of Justice that Nvidia bundled and promoted the connection cables between GPU chips, including H100, and servers, and the bundled package price was cheaper than buying chips alone. But if they do not agree to the bundling, Nvidia will limit the number of chips purchased.
US Department of Justice officials are investigating whether Nvidia is pressuring customers to link chip sales with the purchase of additional products, and whether it is raising prices for customers who also purchase AI chips from competitors such as AMD and Intel.
In fact, in order to buy Nvidia chips faster, one of Nvidia's biggest customers, Microsoft, once half heartedly purchased a large number of server cables from Nvidia.
And server connectivity cables have also become one of Nvidia's important sources of revenue, with sales in April more than tripling to $3.2 billion, accounting for 14% of Nvidia's total data center product revenue.
When Nvidia negotiated with customers about its next flagship chip GB200, Nvidia requested that customers purchase Nvidia designed racks to be the first to receive the new chip. But Nvidia's rack design is difficult to use chips from competitors.
But Microsoft executives opposed this, and Microsoft and Nvidia argued over the issue for several weeks. Microsoft eventually convinced Nvidia to make concessions.
Microsoft purchased AMD chips and established a strong relationship with AMD, causing the latter's stock price to soar.
Nvidia responded by saying that Nvidia wins by its strength, and the company strictly abides by all laws to ensure that every customer can choose the most suitable solution for them. The company is willing to provide any information required by regulatory agencies.
Acquisition of Run: AI also under investigation
Although Nvidia has not attempted a large-scale acquisition recently, according to Politico magazine, the US Department of Justice is also monitoring Nvidia's recent acquisition of software startup Run: ai.
The transaction amount is reportedly around 700 million US dollars. The software sold by the company helps reduce the number of GPUs required for developers to complete tasks.
Although cloud computing providers such as Amazon and Microsoft have independently developed such technologies, Run: AI's software has become an important choice for customers in industries such as financial services, defense, and manufacturing.
The US Department of Justice is investigating whether this transaction will prevent the startup's clients from using GPUs manufactured by Nvidia's competitors.
The bundling of software and hardware has sparked public outrage
Another focus of regulatory attention is Nvidia's programming software ecosystem Cuda, which can only be used in conjunction with Nvidia chips. Due to programmers not wanting to bother learning how to program with competitors' chips, Cuda has become an important factor in increasing Nvidia sales in recent years.
According to Reuters, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and 10 progressive groups including Demand Progress have put pressure on the US Department of Justice to investigate Nvidia. They targeted Nvidia's software and hardware bundling behavior.
These groups wrote that this aggressive proprietary programming software goes against industry norms and serves to lock in customers and stifle innovation. In fact, the French antitrust agency is preparing to file relevant charges against Nvidia.
Nvidia responded by stating that the company spent billions of dollars developing related technologies before the demand emerged, and is committed to opening up new markets and growth opportunities for its partner ecosystem.