French Authorities Investigate Nvidia Amid Suspected Anti-Competitive Practices

By: Eliza Bennet

Recent reports have unveiled an emergent concern around tech giant Nvidia seizing monopolistic tendencies within the graphics card industry. Legal authorities in France have intervened via an announced raid at the multinational company's premises, following suspicions of implementing anti-competitive practices within their sector. The Autorité de la Concurrence, France's competition regulator, made this move in alignment with their mission of ensuring equitable competition upon receiving authorization from a judge.

The raid, however, was issued without confirming whether Nvidia has indeed breached the practices in question, with Nvidia's response yet to be brought forth. This investigation is a part of a larger narrative surrounding global concerns over stiffer competition in the cloud computing industry, where smaller companies have found mounting difficulty in breaking through due to the dominance of key players.

Earlier this year, a detailed report by the same authority revealed that three tech supremos - Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure - collectively dominated over a staggering 70% of the cloud market. Their dominance also accounted for nearly 80% of total public cloud infrastructures and application spending, highlighting concerns about these 'hyperscalers' unfairly obstructing competition.

While Nvidia's role in the cloud market sector is not directly mentioned, its stronghold within the semiconductor space and fruitful collaborations with the major players in question have presumably placed it under the regulatory scrutiny. Further, there are speculations that its market-dominance could reach up to 90% following the launch of its latest cutting-edge hardware.