Friday, August 2nd 2024
NVIDIA Hit with DOJ Antitrust Probe over AI GPUs, Unfair Sales Tactics and Pricing Alleged
NVIDIA has reportedly been hit with a US Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust probe over the tactics the company allegedly employs to sell or lease its AI GPUs and data-center networking equipment, "The Information" reported. Shares of the NVIDIA stock fell 3.6% in the pre-market trading on Friday (08/02). The main complainants behind the probe appear to be a special interest group among the customers of AI GPUs, and not NVIDIA's competitors in the AI GPU industry per se. US Senator Elizabeth Warren and US progressives have been most vocal about calling upon the DOJ to investigate antitrust allegations against NVIDIA.
Meanwhile, US officials are reportedly reaching out to NVIDIA's competitors, including AMD and Intel, to gather information about the complaints. NVIDIA holds 80% of the AI GPU market, while AMD, and to a much lesser extent, Intel, have received spillover demand for AI GPUs. "The Information" report says that the complaint alleges NVIDIA pressured cloud customers to buy "multiple products". We don't know what this means, one theory holds that NVIDIA is getting them to commit to buying multiple generations of products (eg: Ampere, Hopper, and over to Blackwell); while another holds that it's getting them to buy multiple kinds of products, which include not just the AI GPUs, but also NVIDIA's first-party server systems and networking equipment. Yet another theory holds that it is bundle first-party software and services to go with the hardware, far beyond the basic software needed to get the hardware to work.
Another aspects of the antitrust complaint holds that NVIDIA charges more for its data-center infrastructure products, specifically its networking equipment, if customers want to buy AI GPUs from NVIDIA's competitors—AMD and Intel. AMD's Instinct CDNA and Intel's Gaudi accelerators receive attention from cloud customers bit by pricing or long delivery timelines from NVIDIA, which holds 80% of the AI GPU market.
NVIDIA released a statement on this matter, where it assured full cooperation with the investigation. "We compete based on decades of investment and innovation, scrupulously adhering to all laws, making NVIDIA openly available in every cloud and on-prem for every enterprise, and ensuring that customers can choose whatever solution is best for them," an NVIDIA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.
Sources:
The Information, Reuters, Reuters (2)
Meanwhile, US officials are reportedly reaching out to NVIDIA's competitors, including AMD and Intel, to gather information about the complaints. NVIDIA holds 80% of the AI GPU market, while AMD, and to a much lesser extent, Intel, have received spillover demand for AI GPUs. "The Information" report says that the complaint alleges NVIDIA pressured cloud customers to buy "multiple products". We don't know what this means, one theory holds that NVIDIA is getting them to commit to buying multiple generations of products (eg: Ampere, Hopper, and over to Blackwell); while another holds that it's getting them to buy multiple kinds of products, which include not just the AI GPUs, but also NVIDIA's first-party server systems and networking equipment. Yet another theory holds that it is bundle first-party software and services to go with the hardware, far beyond the basic software needed to get the hardware to work.
NVIDIA released a statement on this matter, where it assured full cooperation with the investigation. "We compete based on decades of investment and innovation, scrupulously adhering to all laws, making NVIDIA openly available in every cloud and on-prem for every enterprise, and ensuring that customers can choose whatever solution is best for them," an NVIDIA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.
49 Comments on NVIDIA Hit with DOJ Antitrust Probe over AI GPUs, Unfair Sales Tactics and Pricing Alleged
Last Cards I bought was 600.00 each 1080ti's They have been working good since. 4k all games. I mean 4080 SUper is around 1600.00 here now but that is 1 month rent and internet and phone bills for a month.
Just cannot spare that in this economy.
www.theregister.com/2024/06/06/chinas_new_chip_sanctions_loophole
Yeah. This can be extended all the way back to the CUDA rackmounts for ML/LLMs on the Quadros of old, that already required specialty HW for the full features, if the DOJ wants it.
Nvidia: we are shipping full systems at the moment, you can get GPUs but you will have to wait 4 years.
Customer: AMD has GPUS
Nvidia: it would be a shame if something happened with your other orders....
I wouldn't be surprised but surely that's illegal, if true of course!
Their last decent card was the 1080Ti
If you are taking about nvidia, lol okay :roll:
Amd drivers are the reason people think amd drivers suck. There are games I cant' even play due to drivers, what are you talking about man? :D
You don't even understand that Wizzard even says that Radeon software is a reason to get Radeon cards. Then you show your understanding of AMD cards when we get driver updates once a month.
Of course such a thing would not be be surprising, that's the way it does business and has for a long time. Nvidia partners get priority GPU shipments so long as you follow all their rules. This is why ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte no longer offer their top SKU on AMD GPUs for the 7000 series. Nvidia is getting increasing anti-competitive with it's requirements and any step out of line gets your GPU allotment greatly reduced.
Both the CPU and GPU markets are similar in that Intel and Nvidia are able to use their market presence as leverage against competitors. Even in the case where your competitor has a better, more efficient laptop CPU you still maintain 95% of laptop designs. That speaks worlds. The differrence is, in the GPU market Nvidia also leverages software lock-in extensively in addition to using their market position. Nvidia has vertically integrated itself in as many places as possible. It wields massive control over not only the GPU market but most all associated use cases for those GPUs. Heck they are even integrated on transgenally related things like Mice and Monitors.
It's hard to impossible to compete in a market where the dominent player has their hands in literally everything.
but nothing going to come of it. because Nvidia is not going to opensource “CUDA”…