Nvidia In Hot Water with French Regulator Over Alleged Unfair Competitive Practice
A Reuters exclusive report disclosed that France’s Antitrust Regulator is about to file charges against computer chip maker Nvidia, for allegedly engaging in anti-competitive practices. Apparently, the charges are the results of a broader inquiry into the chip maker’s production of chips for both AI and graphics, following the launch of the generative AI application known as ChatGPT.
In a report issued last Friday, the French regulator cited the potential dependence on Nvidia’s Computer Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) chip used in powering up software that runs the competitive generative AI messaging platform known as Chat GPT.
OpenAi’s launch of ChatGPT had catapulted Nvidia to the forefront of AI technology as there was a notable boom in the demand for Nvidia’s CUDA chip, It is the only chip that is 100% compatible with the graphics processing unit (GPUs), which Nvidia expanded to accelerate computing. ChatGPT, albeit described as a disruptive chat bot, demonstrated the immense power of Nvidia’s CUDA chip.
A GPU by the way is an electronic circuit that has the ability to carry out high-speed mathematical calculations typically used to accelerate computing tasks like graphics rendering, video editing and machine learning (ML).
The French watchdog is said to be the first regulator set to enforce actions against Nvidia’s unfair competitive practice in computer chip production.
Additionally, the French regulator also expressed unease over the recent investment made by Nvidia in CoreWeave, a cloud service provider with AI capabilities.