Nvidia’s Run:ai acquisition waved through by EU

Six months later, the Commission accepted a request to investigate the deal from Italy’s competition watchdog, which suspected that the transaction may pose concrete risks for competition. The Commission began its investigation in mid-November.

It found that, while Nvidia likely holds a dominant position in the global market for discrete GPUs used in data centers, it has no incentive to limit the compatibility of its GPUs with orchestration software produced by rivals of Run:ai. Further, it found that Run:ai’s market share is, in any case, too small to be significant today, and customers seeking such software have sufficient alternatives.

But Nvidia may not be out of the woods yet. Competition authorities in other markets are closely examining the company’s acquisition strategy, and earlier this month China’s State Administration for Market Regulation regulators called in a five-year-old Nvidia acquisition — coincidentally of another Israeli company — for renewed scrutiny.