By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators are asking Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) rivals and customers if the U.S. artificial intelligence chipmaker bundles its products that may give it an unfair advantage, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, in a move that may lead to a formal investigation.
Nvidia, which has a near-monopoly with an 84% market share, far ahead of rivals Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), has in recent years attracted regulatory scrutiny from regulators in the European Union, the United States, the UK, China and South Korea.
The company has seen high demand from customers involved in generative AI and accelerated computing for its chips.
The European Commission recently sent out questionnaires asking if there is any commercial and technical tying of graphics processing unit (GPU) products by Nvidia, the sources said. The document is separate from another related to Nvidia's proposed buy of artificial intelligence startup Run:ai.
The EU competition enforcer wants to know how Nvidia sells its GPU products to various customers and whether the contracts require them to buy networking equipment with GPU, the sources said.
The Commission declined to comment.
Nvidia said: "We support customer choice and compete on merit across the board. Our products are best-in-class and able to stand on their own. We support open industry standards, enabling our partners and customers to use our products in a wide variety of configurations and system designs."
Such questionnaires are usually part of the watchdog's fact-finding procedures which could beef up initial concerns. EU antitrust violations can cause companies fines as much as 10% of their global annual turnover.
The French antitrust regulator is already investigating Nvidia and is preparing to hit the company with charges, other sources told Reuters earlier this year.