EC Approved Acquisition of Run:ai by NVIDIA

The European Commission has approved unconditionally the proposed acquisition of Run:ai Labs by NVIDIA. The EC concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area.

The transaction does not reach the notification thresholds as Run:ai's current revenues are negligible. Based on its market investigation, the EC found that NVIDIA likely holds a dominant position in the global market for discrete GPUs for use in data centers. However, the company will have neither the technical ability nor the incentive to hamper the compatibility of its GPUs with competing GPU orchestration software due to the availability and widespread use of tools that ensure such compatibility, a point that has been confirmed by Run:ai's competitors.

“Since NVIDIA is a leading producer of key hardware for AI applications used in the EU and beyond, it was important to carefully check whether its acquisition of start-up software company Run:ai may have negatively impacted competition in critical markets which are key for future competitiveness. However, our market investigation confirmed to us that other software options compatible with NVIDIA’s hardware will remain available in the market. This case, referred by Italy, highlights the importance of Member State referrals in enabling the EC to continue to check potentially problematic transactions,“ said Teresa Ribera, EVP for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition.