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"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" August 2nd (Editor Zhu Ling)In early June, when Nvidia became the world’s second-highest-valued company, the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily reported:。

Recently, with the joint pressure from its competitor AMD, AI chip startups, as well as American progressive groups and Democratic senators, Nvidia has been sinking deeper and deeper into the antitrust investigation storm.

AMD and others complain about Nvidia's tie-in sales

The Information, a US technology website, quoted two people familiar with the matter as saying:The U.S. Department of Justice has recently received complaints from Nvidia competitors, including AMD and AI chip startupsThe U.S. Department of Justice is collecting information and investigating allegations that Nvidia threatened to punish customers who also bought its competitors’ products, as well as Nvidia’s recent acquisition of startups to strengthen its control over software used by AI developers.

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, etc., which may harm the interests of competitors and customers.

Employees of some Nvidia customers revealed that if their companies also purchase chips from competitors such as AMD, Nvidia may raise prices for them or limit sales quantities.

A representative of Nvidia's competitor complained to the U.S. Department of Justice thatNvidia is bundling GPU chips including H100 with cables connecting servers for promotion, the bundled package price is cheaper than buying the chip alone.If you don't agree to the bundled sale, Nvidia will limit the number of chips you buy.。

U.S. Justice Department officials are investigating whether Nvidia pressured customers to tie chip sales to purchases of additional products, and whether it raised prices for customers who also bought AI chips from rivals such as AMD and Intel.

In fact,In order to buy Nvidia chips faster, Microsoft, one of Nvidia's largest customers, reluctantly purchased a large number of server cables from Nvidia.。

Server 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 was negotiating with customers about its next flagship chip, the GB200,Nvidia requires customers to buy Nvidia-designed racks to get new chips first. But Nvidia-designed racks are difficult to use with competitors' chips.。

But Microsoft executives objected, and Microsoft and Nvidia argued over the issue for weeks before Microsoft eventually convinced Nvidia to back down.

Microsoft bought AMD chips and developed a strong relationship with AMD, which sent the company's stock price soaring.

Nvidia responded that it wins by strength, the company strictly abides by all laws, and ensures that every customer can choose the solution that best suits them. The company is happy to provide any information required by regulators.

The acquisition of Run:AI is also under investigation

Although Nvidia has not attempted a large-scale acquisition recently, according to Politico magazine, the US Department of Justice is also paying attention to Nvidia's recent acquisition of software startup Run:ai.

The deal, reportedly valued at about $700 million, is for the company, which sells software that helps reduce the number of GPUs developers need to complete tasks.

Although Amazon and Microsoftcloud computingProviders have developed such technology on their own, but Run:ai’s software has become a prominent choice for customers in industries such as financial services, defense and manufacturing.

The Justice Department is looking into whether the deal would prevent the startup’s customers from using GPUs made by Nvidia’s competitors.

Software and hardware bundling sparks public outrage

Another focus of regulators is Nvidia's programming software ecosystem, Cuda, which can only be used with Nvidia chips. Cuda has become a key factor in boosting Nvidia's sales in recent years because programmers don't want to bother learning how to program using competitors' chips.

According to Reuters, U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren and 10 progressive groups including Demand Progress have put pressure on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate Nvidia, targeting Nvidia's software and hardware bundling practices.

The groups wrote that such aggressive proprietary programming software runs counter to industry norms and serves to lock in customers and stifle innovation. In fact, France’s antitrust regulator is preparing to bring charges against Nvidia.

Nvidia responded that the company spent billions of dollars developing relevant technologies before demand emerged and was committed to opening up new markets and growth opportunities for its partner ecosystem.

(Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily Zhu Ling)