A French Nvidia office has reportedly been raided amid ongoing investigations by the country’s competition authority relating to anticompetitive practices.
The Autorité de la Concurrence confirmed that, with the authorization of a liberty and custody judge, a dawn raid took place on September 26.
France’s competition authority said that the case relates specifically to anticompetitive practices in the graphics card sector, in which Nvidia plays a considerable role.
Nvidia tied up in anticompetitve investigation
The California-based company has long been a firm favorite for computer hardware but has more recently experienced great success with its AI-focused chips.
The Autorité de la Concurrence said that the dawn raid would not indicate any wrongdoing in isolation, but that only a full investigation would do so.
The French body has not confirmed how the raid took place or whether any artifacts were seized, but these types of early-hour raids typically involve the seizure of physical and digital artifacts and sometimes the interrogation of employees.
A press release confirming the raid reads: “Such dawn raids do not pre-suppose the existence of a breach of the law which could be imputed to the company involved in the alleged practices.”
Nvidia’s revenue figures have been climbing in recent quarters thanks to the success it has achieved with regards to its chips, which have proven popular in the world of AI and supercomputers.
While popular at the regular consumer level, Intel, AMD, and other chipmakers have struggled to reach the same heights as Nvidia, which is likely part of the reason why France seems keen to check out the company for any malpractices.
TechRadar Pro asked Nvidia to share a comment on the matter, but the company declined.
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