NVIDIA's acquisition of Israeli AI startup Run:ai is under scrutiny in Europe due to competition concerns. Although it does not meet the notification threshold for EU merger regulations, Italy has expressed worries about the deal. The European Commission is examining whether the transaction will significantly impact market competition. NVIDIA has stated its willingness to answer questions from regulators and continues to provide AI solutions. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it has been reported that the acquisition amount is approximately $700 million
According to Zhitong Finance APP, due to competition issues, NVIDIA (NVDA.US)'s acquisition of Israeli artificial intelligence startup Run:ai is under review in Europe.
The European Commission stated that although the transaction does not meet the notification threshold set by the EU Merger Regulation, Italy has expressed concerns about the transaction under the Italian Competition Law.
The European Commission wrote in a statement: "When the Italian competition authority finds that a transaction that does not meet the relevant national turnover thresholds poses a specific risk to competition and meets other conditions set by the Italian Competition Law, these powers enable it to review these transactions."
The European Commission added that it is examining the transaction to see if it "significantly" affects market competition where both NVIDIA and Run:ai are active.
A spokesperson for NVIDIA stated: "We are happy to answer any questions that regulators may have regarding Run:ai. After the acquisition is completed, we will continue to provide AI across every cloud and enterprise, helping customers choose any system and software solutions that best suit them."
In April of this year, NVIDIA announced the acquisition of Run:ai. Financial terms were not disclosed, but reports indicated that NVIDIA paid approximately $700 million to acquire Run:ai. It is understood that Run:ai improves the efficiency of AI chips by enabling multiple workloads to run in parallel, thereby reducing the number of GPUs required to complete tasks.
In August, reports indicated that the U.S. Department of Justice was also investigating NVIDIA's acquisition of Run:ai on antitrust grounds