Chipmaker Nvidia announced on Monday that it has completed its acquisition of Israeli AI company Run:ai, following antitrust scrutiny over the acquisition.
The European Commission rejected Nvidia's $700 million bid for Run:ai, which helps developers optimize their AI infrastructure, after saying in October that the deal required EU antitrust clearance. , granted unconditional approval in early December.
The EU's antitrust watchdog had warned that the deal threatened competition in the markets in which both companies operate.
Investigations into the deal focused on practices that could strengthen Nvidia's control over the graphics processing unit (GPU) market, a popular chip often used for AI-related tasks.
Nvidia dominates the AI graphics processor market, with around 80% of the share.
However, the European Commission concluded in early December that the acquisition of Run:ai, originally announced in April, did not raise competition concerns.
Politico reported in August that the U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the semiconductor giant's acquisition of Run:ai on antitrust grounds.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have recently stepped up their scrutiny of tech giants' acquisitions of startups over concerns that such deals could crowd out potential rivals.
Run:ai said in a blog post that it plans to open source its software.
“Run:ai currently supports only Nvidia GPUs, but open sourcing the software will allow us to extend its availability to the entire AI ecosystem,” the company said.
