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NVIDIA Hit with DOJ Antitrust Probe over AI GPUs, Unfair Sales Tactics and Pricing Alleged

btarunr

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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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source
 
Low quality post by Daven
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At this point, if you put Intel and Nvidia CEOs in the same room, the immense force of greed between the two would open up a portal into a treasure dimension like in Diablo III.

Jensen: Look, Pat we did it! And it only took the innocent souls of a million PC enthusiasts.

Pat: Is it getting hot in here? I hope that portal wasn't made at an IFS fab.

1722595335816.png
 
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At this point, if you put Intel and Nvidia CEOs in the same room, the immense force of greed between the two would open up a black hole into a treasure dimension like in Diablo III.
AND empty your bank account, wallet, and major organs from simply being in their proximity.
 
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YA this is the reason why I have not upgraded Video Cards. I wanted a new one for sure but I cannot see me buy a video card worth the same price as a USed CAR.
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.
 
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"We compete based on decades of investment and innovation, scrupulously adhering to all laws,
Jennifer Lawrence Work GIF

 
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"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 NVIDIA solution is best for them,"
fixed
 
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"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,"
", as long as it is made and sold by us."

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.
 
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About time for nGreedia. They need to look how they are getting around the A.I. performance limitations in China too.
 
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It is good to have someone checking up on these monopolies. I think Nvidia definitely offended many people and companies with their sales practice. But given the amount of money they earn now, the fine is probably just loose change to them. And the worst part, the same people/companies will buy from them.
 
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Fines will be peanuts just like in case of Harley Davidson, AT&T, etc... thanks to wimps at DoJ and other agencies.
They better hope the FTC does not get invloved that Khan director is no joke. This makes me happy to buy AMD so that I don't support the unabashed Greed and Hubris that both of those Companies display.
 
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Customer: I want more GPUs
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....
 

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A big wig here got fined half a billion for price fixing bread. This stuff happens all the time, nice to see people getting caught for their shady ways.
 
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Nvidia: it would be a shame if something happened with your other orders....
Really are they threatening companies like that?

I wouldn't be surprised but surely that's illegal, if true of course!
 
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A big wig here got fined half a billion for price fixing bread. This stuff happens all the time, nice to see people getting caught for their shady ways.
Well they were charging us up to $7 for a loaf of bread. It was too low for me and you know they will just increase the price of other things to make up for it. In fact our entire Food industry should be looked at, there is no good reason the Maple Leaf owns more than 90% of the food supply in Canada and have shed over 200,000 jobs over the last 30 Years.

Really are they threatening companies like that?

I wouldn't be surprised but surely that's illegal, if true of course!
They have always been like that. ATI only survived for one reason.
 
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they done it with GPU board manufacturers with the GeForce Partner Program they werent allowed to give AMD premium branding or they lost GPU allocation.
 
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They made good products, that's why it survived.
They have actually been making overpriced, badly designed, badly engineered crap for the last 5 years.

Their last decent card was the 1080Ti
 
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They have actually been making overpriced, badly designed, badly engineered crap for the last 5 years.

Their last decent card was the 1080Ti
If you are talking about ATI (thats what i was talking about), no not really. They have made some incredible cards.

If you are taking about nvidia, lol okay :roll:
 
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They made good products, that's why it survived.
You obviously do not understand Geo politics. ATI only survived because they were Canadian. AMD was already owned by a Non American when they bought ATI. Sure they made great products but ATI drivers are why some people think the AMD drivers suck.
 
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You obviously do not understand Geo politics. ATI only survived because they were Canadian. AMD was already owned by a Non American when they bought ATI. Sure they made great products but ATI drivers are why some people think the AMD drivers suck.
I don't think being canadian has anything to do with them having up to 60% marketshare globally.

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
 
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I don't think being canadian has anything to do with them having up to 60% marketshare globally.

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


I give up. If you ever visited ATI offices in Markham you would understand. 60% marketshare in world where GPUs ranged from $40-$300 did not translate into lot's of money. That is why 5.4 billion was all it took for AMD to buy them.

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.
 
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Really are they threatening companies like that?

I wouldn't be surprised but surely that's illegal, if true of course!

Some companies have come forth anonymously reporting that is in fact the case. That was in February of 2024 (not sure which places ran the article other than tom's)

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.
 
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