Nvidia has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department as part of its ongoing investigation into possible antitrust violations by the Silicon Valley chipmaker that has dominated the artificial intelligence market.
The antitrust watchdog previously submitted questionnaires and has now sent legally binding requests to Nvidia, according to Bloomberg News.
The report added that other companies had also received subpoenas.
Nvidia declined to comment on the report, but said it would provide any information regulators request.
“We compete based on decades of investment and innovation, scrupulously complying with all laws, making Nvidia openly available in any cloud and on-prem for any enterprise, and ensuring customers can choose whichever solution is most good for them,” said an Nvidia spokesperson. Reuters.
Nvidia on Tuesday suffered a loss of $279 billion from its market capitalization as the company’s shares fell nearly 10% as investors lowered their optimism for AI amid a global sell-off on Tuesday.
Jensen Huang, the CEO of the company who has instilled a workplace culture where employees stay in the office up to seven days a week, lost $10 billion from his net worth, which was estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $94.9 billion since the stock market closed on Tuesday.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment late on Thursday.
Last month, The Information reported that Justice Department investigators were looking into complaints that Nvidia allegedly abused its market dominance in the sale of chips that power artificial intelligence technology.
Nvidia has allegedly pressured cloud providers to buy multiple products, while charging its customers more for networking equipment if they buy AI chips from rivals including Advanced Micro Devices and Intel.
Nvidia controls about 80% of the AI chip market.
US lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have lobbied the DOJ to investigate Nvidia over concerns it was violating antitrust law.
The world’s largest maker of chips used for both artificial intelligence and computer graphics has seen demand for its chips surge after the release of AI-generating app ChatGPT, prompting regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic.
Earlier this summer, French authorities accused Nvidia of anti-competitive practices.
In 2022, Nvidia announced it would abandon plans to buy semiconductor giant ARM for $40 billion after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block it.
The FTC under its current chair, Lina Khan, has been particularly aggressive in cracking down on alleged antitrust violations by big tech firms — drawing the ire of Silicon Valley moguls and business leaders, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and IAC chief Barry Diller.
In July, Hoffman publicly urged Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris to remove Khan if she wins the 2024 presidential election in November.
Jonathan Kanter, the top DOJ official who heads its antitrust division, has also angered business leaders over his efforts to curb corporate power with lawsuits against companies such as Google and Apple.
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