Nvidia's Acquisition of Run:ai Approved by the European Commission

Investing.com -- The European Commission has approved Nvidia's acquisition of Israeli firm Run:ai, eliminating a major regulatory hurdle for the deal. In a statement on Friday, the Commission concluded that the acquisition would not pose a threat to competition.

The Commission's decision was based on the fact that leading AI company Nvidia would not have the ability or incentive to undermine the compatibility of competing software with the highly sought-after graphics processing units (GPUs). The European Union's merger regulator had set December 20 as the deadline to approve the deal or initiate a comprehensive investigation.

As a major chip manufacturer, Nvidia has faced increasing scrutiny from global antitrust regulators this year. Regulators are keen to prevent a small number of technology giants from dominating emerging technologies and stifling potential competitors.

The Nvidia-RUN:AI deal, announced in April, caught the attention of the EU following the referral by Italian regulators. This referral was made using a legal tool employed by European regulators to examine transactions that fall below the usual thresholds for merger investigations, referred to as "killer acquisitions."

The EU regulator examined whether the deal would affect the supply of discrete GPUs used in data centers and the GPU orchestration software market. The regulator determined that Run:ai currently does not hold a significant position in the orchestration software market. It also noted that customers would continue to have access to services from Run:ai's competitors or could develop their own software in-house.