The US Department of Justice continues to investigate the chip giant Nvidia over potential antitrust violations and has issued subpoenas to Nvidia and third-party companies as part of its ongoing investigation, Bloomberg reports Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
The DOJ had previously sent questionnaires to the companies. But its subpoenas take things a step further because they are legal written orders that compel recipients to provide additional information. The department has been investigating Nvidia since at least as early as June, looking into whether or to what extent Nvidia might make it difficult for buyers to switch to its competitors. The DOJ’s San Francisco office is leading the investigation, according to the report.
Last month, reports suggested the DOJ is also investigating Nvidia over its acquisition of RunAI, an Israeli startup it bought earlier this year for $700 million. In response to inquiries about the federal investigation, Nvidia has repeatedly said it is “winning on the merits.”
“We compete based on decades of investment and innovation, we follow all laws closely, make Nvidia openly available in all clouds and on-prem for every business, and ensure customers can choose the solution that’s best for them,” the company previously said . PCMag in a statement. “We will continue to support aspiring innovators in all industries and markets and are happy to provide any information that regulators need.”
French authorities are too investigates Nvidia over possible anti-competitive concerns, and its regulator noted in July that it would file charges if its investigation was “fruitful”.
Nvidia has a market capitalization of $2.65 trillion at the time of writing, making it the third largest company by market capitalization behind Apple and Microsoft. But on Tuesday, Nvidia’s stock fell over 9.5%. This decline meant that it lost $278.9 billion in value in just one day, making it the biggest one-day loss experienced by an American company, reports Business Insider.
Some analysts believe this decline may be due to broader economic factors, as well as growing investor concerns about the high costs of AI. However, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously called the costs of generative AI “negligible” and has argued that every country in the world should develop its own “sovereign AI”.