NVIDIA faces more trouble after a sharp decline: reportedly, the US Department of Justice issued a subpoena for antitrust investigation

Just experienced a sharp decline, NVIDIA faces the danger of increased antitrust scrutiny by the U.S. government.

According to Bloomberg citing sources, after the U.S. stock market closed on Tuesday, September 3, the U.S. Department of Justice issued subpoenas to NVIDIA and some third-party companies seeking evidence of NVIDIA's violation of antitrust laws. Antitrust officials are concerned that NVIDIA will make it harder for customers to switch to other artificial intelligence (AI) computing suppliers, and buyers who do not exclusively use its AI chips will be penalized. This news indicates that U.S. regulators are stepping up their investigation into NVIDIA's alleged monopoly in the computing services market.

According to the sources, the U.S. Department of Justice had previously issued questionnaires to some companies, and now the legally binding requests for information are being sent out, requiring the companies that received the subpoenas to provide information. This brings the U.S. government one step closer to formally filing a complaint against NVIDIA.

Following the news, NVIDIA's stock fell further after hours, with a decline of over 2% at one point. On Tuesday, NVIDIA closed down 9.5%, hitting a new low since August 9. Due to the sharp drop in stock price, NVIDIA's market value shrank by about $278.9 billion in a single day on Tuesday, setting a new record for the largest single-day market value evaporation of a U.S. stock previously held by Meta. Meta's previous record was set on February 3, 2022, when its market value evaporated by $232 billion.

The U.S. Department of Justice and representatives of NVIDIA declined to comment on the news from this Tuesday. However, reports over the past year have shown that the U.S. government is intensifying its regulation of the AI sector.

In July last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating whether OpenAI's data collection practices could harm consumers.

In January this year, the FTC's regulatory scope expanded further to comprehensively review the strategic partnerships between tech giants and AI startups. This includes Microsoft's massive investment in OpenAI, as well as collaborations between Google, Amazon, and Anthropic.

Nearly three months ago, there were reports in the media about the U.S. government launching an investigation into AI industry giants such as NVIDIA.

An article from Wall Street CN in early June mentioned that the U.S. Department of Justice and the FTC reached an agreement to continue their antitrust investigations into Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA's dominant positions in the AI industry. Under the agreement, the Department of Justice will lead the investigation into whether NVIDIA, as a chip manufacturing giant, has violated antitrust laws, while the FTC will lead the antitrust investigation into OpenAI and Microsoft.

The article noted that some analysts believe this is the most powerful signal of the U.S. regulatory authorities' escalation of antitrust investigations in the AI sector.

In June, reports indicated that at the end of May, the U.S. Department of Justice held a public workshop on AI competition at Stanford University, with dozens of industry companies participating. While NVIDIA's name was rarely mentioned at the meeting, companies in attendance stated that the shortage of high-performance chips needed to train basic AI models has had a significant impact on the industryAccording to news in June, investigators have been contacting other technology companies to gather information. This Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice's San Francisco office is leading the investigation