Nvidia acquisition of Run:ai under scrutiny by EU

Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) deal to acquire Israeli startup Run:ai is under scrutiny in Europe amid competition concerns.

Nvidia shares fell 0.9% in premarket trading on Thursday.

The European Commission said that although the deal does not meet the notification thresholds set forth by the EU Merger Regulation, Italy expressed concern over the deal, via the Italian Competition Act.

“Such powers enable the Italian competition authority to review transactions not meeting the relevant national turnover thresholds when it finds that they pose concrete risks for competition and the other conditions laid down in the Italian Competition Act are met,” the European Commission wrote in a statement.

The European Commission added it is looking at the deal to see if it “significantly” impacts competition in the markets where both Nvidia and Run:ai are active.

“We are happy to answer any questions regulators may have about Run:ai,” an Nvidia spokesperson told Seeking Alpha via email. “After the acquisition closes, we’ll continue to make AI available in every cloud and enterprise, and help customers select any system and software solution that works best for them.”

Nvidia announced its deal to acquire Run:ai in April. Financial terms were not disclosed, but reports suggest the Jensen Huang-led company paid roughly $700M to acquire Run:ai, which AI chips more efficient by enabling multiple workloads to run in parallel, reducing the number of GPUs needed to complete tasks.