Nvidia subpoenaed by DOJ over $700M Run:ai acquisition
U.S officials are concerned that the chipmaker is making it harder to switch to other suppliers and penalizes buyers that do not exclusively use its artificial intelligence chips.
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to Nvidia and other companies as part of an investigation into potential antitrust violations by the chip giant, according to a report by Bloomberg. This move signals an escalation in the Department of Justice's ongoing investigation and could be a significant step toward filing an indictment against the company.
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that senior Justice Department officials are concerned that Nvidia may be designing its chipsets in a way that makes it difficult for customers to switch to competing vendors and punishes buyers who do not exclusively use its artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Previously, the Department of Justice had sent questionnaires to Nvidia and other technology companies, and the investigation has now progressed to the stage where subpoenas have been issued to company executives, requiring them to provide information.
The investigation also covers Nvidia's acquisition of the Israeli company Run:ai for $700 million, which was announced in April. Run:ai has developed an operating system for AI processors, and there are concerns that integrating this system with other Nvidia products could make it more challenging for customers to stop using Nvidia’s chips. Investigators are also examining whether Nvidia offers supplies and special pricing to customers who exclusively use its technology or purchase complete systems from the company.
In response, Nvidia stated that its dominant market position is due to the quality of its products, which offer faster performance than those of its competitors. "Nvidia wins on merit, as reflected in our benchmark results and value to customers, who can choose whatever solution is best for them," a spokesperson for the company said.
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“Run:ai has been a close collaborator with NVIDIA since 2020 and we share a passion for helping our customers make the most of their infrastructure,” said Omri Geller, Run:ai co-founder and CEO, after the deal was announced. “We’re thrilled to join NVIDIA and look forward to continuing our journey together.”
Run:ai raised $75 million in a Series C round in March 2022 led by Tiger Global Management and Insight Partners, who also led the previous Series B round. The round included the participation of additional existing investors, TLV Partners, and S Capital VC, bringing the total funding raised to date to $118 million.
Run:ai was founded in 2018 by Omri Geller (CEO) and Dr. Ronen Dar (CTO). Run:ai has developed an orchestration and virtualization software layer tailored to the unique needs of AI workloads running on GPUs and similar chipsets. Run:ai’s Kubernetes-based container platform for AI clouds efficiently pools and shares GPUs by automatically assigning the necessary amount of computing power – from fractions of GPUs, to multiple GPUs, to multiple nodes of GPUs.
