EU officials warn that NVIDIA's artificial intelligence chip supply is a "huge bottleneck"
EU officials warn that NVIDIA's artificial intelligence chip supply is a "major bottleneck," with regulators yet to decide whether to take action. NVIDIA's GPUs are attracting attention for their ability to process large amounts of information needed to develop AI models. While supply is tight, the secondary market may help stimulate innovation and fair competition. The EU's competition chief stated that dominant companies may face certain behavioral restrictions, but as long as they comply with regulations, there should be no issue
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition, has warned that the supply of NVIDIA's artificial intelligence chips is a "major bottleneck," but regulatory authorities have not yet decided whether to take action or what action to take.
"We have been asking them questions, but this is just preliminary," she said during her trip to Singapore. So far, this does not "qualify as regulatory action."
Since becoming the biggest beneficiary of the artificial intelligence spending boom, NVIDIA has attracted the attention of regulatory authorities. Its Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), favored by data center operators for their ability to process massive amounts of information needed to develop artificial intelligence models, have become one of the hottest commodities in the tech industry.
These chips have become highly sought after by cloud computing providers competing to secure their supply. It is estimated that NVIDIA's H100 processor has helped the company capture over 80% of the market share, surpassing competitors like Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Despite the supply constraints, Vestager suggests that the secondary market for AI chip supply may help stimulate innovation and fair competition.
However, she also mentioned that dominant companies in the future may face certain behavioral restrictions.
"If you have this kind of dominant position in the market, there are things that small companies can do that you cannot do," she said. "But other than that, as long as you do what you should do and respect it, there is no problem."
