Investing.com -- Shares in Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) were slightly higher in early US trading, paring back earlier losses, after Bloomberg News reported that the company had been sent a subpoena by the US Department of Justice as part of a deepening probe into its artificial intelligence chip market dominance.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the DoJ is worried Nvidia is making it harder for customers to change suppliers and penalizes those who do not exclusively use its AI-optimized processors.
According to a spokesperson for the company quoted by Reuters, Nvidia has said its buyers can "choose whatever solution is best for them," adding that its recent blockbuster results demonstrates that the business "wins by merit."
The Information reported last month that the DoJ had launched an investigation into potential competition concerns at Nvidia following complaints from the group's rivals.
The report came after Nvidia's (NASDAQ:NVDA) share price fell by more than 9% on Tuesday, shedding around $279 billion in market value off the firm that has been the focal point of a boom in enthusiasm around the applications of AI.
Other chip stocks, including AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), also suffered major losses.
Yasin Ebrahim and Reuters contributed to this report.