Nvidia Faces Scrutiny Amidst AI Market Dominance and US Justice Department Probe

A report by Lea Fayad, English adaptation by Nadine Sassine

What is the connection between ChatGPT, self-driving cars, and robots organizing massive warehouses? The simple answer: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

However, if we are talking about who is behind this "revolution," one name shines: Nvidia.

When Nvidia was founded 30 years ago, its name was tied to video games because of its specialty in manufacturing microchips that processed images and graphics with precision—what we know as GPUs. Over time, big companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta turned to Nvidia’s chips to develop their technologies, which expanded its market.

With the rise of the AI revolution in 2020, Nvidia became the central player in advancing this technology, controlling more than 80 percent of the AI chip market. Imagine that in just four years, the company grew tenfold, reaching a value earlier this year of over $3 trillion, surpassing Apple and Microsoft as the world's highest-valued company.

However, Nvidia is not in its best shape today. After news spread about an investigation by the US Department of Justice into potential competition violations, concerns arose that Nvidia might be forcing its clients to rely on it exclusively by offering price discounts to companies that work solely with them.

Though the company denies such practices, it lost $279 billion of its market value in just one day after the news broke.

The investigations are expected to take time, according to analysts. They are part of a series of actions the Biden administration has been taking against tech giants to prevent the concentration of technological information and AI power in the hands of a few companies. The latest was a court ruling against Google, accusing it of monopoly.

The outcome of these investigations remains unclear, especially with the upcoming US presidential elections. No one knows how the new administration will handle the situation, all amidst the fierce technological competition between China and the US.