The European Commission recently announced investigations into NVIDIA’s proposed acquisition of Run:ai, an Israeli provider of an IT management platform, and Apple’s iPadOS, to assess compliance with the bloc’s digital markets law.
NVIDIA GPU Supplier announced its intention to purchase Run:ai in April, which aimed to “help customers use their AI computing resources more efficiently.” The Run:ai platform dynamically allocates GPU resources, whether on-premises, in public clouds, or at the edge, enabling businesses to get the most out of their hardware and reduce operational costs.
The two companies have been working together since around 2020. The deal is worth $700 million, according to TechCrunchand NVIDIA has no current plans to change Run:ai’s business model.
The deal remains on hold until any competition concerns are resolved by authorities.
Commission says acquisition could affect competition in the market
Italy flagged the agreement to the EU Merger Regulation, which allows mergers that do not have a European dimension but could impact trade and competition within the region. Although it does not meet EU or Italian turnover thresholds, the Italian competition authority has determined that the acquisition either presents concrete risks to competition or fulfills other conditions set out in Italian competition law.
“The transaction threatens to significantly affect competition in the markets in which NVIDIA and Run:ai are active, which are likely to extend at least to the scale of the European Economic Area and therefore include the Italy, reference country,” the European Commission said in a statement. press notice.
“The Commission also concluded that it was best placed to review the transaction given its knowledge and experience in related markets.”
SEE: UK investigating Alphabet-Anthropic partnership over competition concerns
NVIDIA must now “notify the transaction”, meaning that it must send the Commission documentation containing full details of the proposed merger with Run:ai to allow a full assessment of its potential impact.
NVIDIA spokesperson John Rizzo told TechCrunch: “We are happy to answer any questions regulators may have about Run:ai. Once the acquisition is finalized, we will continue to make AI available in every cloud and enterprise, and help customers select the system and software solution that best suits them.
Large tech companies are rapidly investing in young AI startups to quickly take control and capitalize on the AI boom. This is reflected in particular by partnerships such as Microsoft and OpenAI, NVIDIA and Inflection AIAnd Google and Anthropic.
However, such collaborations can lead to market dominance, making it more difficult for other independent companies to secure funding, attract talent, or compete with the advanced technology and reach of larger players. Innovation in AI depends on just a few things, one of which is GPUs.
“With Run:ai, NVIDIA will enable customers to have a single framework that accesses GPU solutions,” NVIDIA said in the acquisition announcement.
EU continues to hold Apple accountable, launches new iPadOS investigation into Digital Markets Act compliance
On November 4, the Commission announced its investigation into whether Apple’s iPadOS operating system complies with the Digital Markets Act.
The requirements of the Act apply only to 24 core platform services offered by the seven “gatekeeper” companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Booking, ByteDance, Meta and Microsoft. The guards all a major economic impact in the EU. and more than 45 million monthly users in the region, or more than 10,000 annual business users for at least three years.
iPadOS, along with the App Store, Safari, and iOS, is on the list of core platform services because it provides “an important gateway for business users to reach end users” must therefore comply with the requirements of the DMA. iPadOS users should be able to choose their default web browser, use third-party app stores, explore features with non-Apple accessories like headphones and smartpens, among other conditions.
Interestingly, macOS is not considered a core platform service, which means that European Mac owners could have access to Apple Intelligence when it will be published. Apple has said it will not roll out its AI offering in the EU due to “regulatory uncertainties” caused by the DMA. However, as macOS is not required to comply, an exception could be made.
On November 1, Apple released a report explaining the steps taken to make iPadOS compliant with the DMA. The Commission will now evaluate this situation to see if the measures are sufficient, but in the event of a violation, Apple could be fined up to 10% of its total global turnover.
SEE: Apple must repay €13 billion in unpaid taxes to Ireland, European court rules
So far, the Cupertino giant has not given in quietly to the legislation. In January he said that Accessing third-party apps on Apple devices poses security risksincluding “malware, frauds and scams, illegal and harmful content”.
But the European Commission has persisted in its efforts to hold Apple to account, launching three investigations into DMA compliance over the past year.
In June, the company was accused of violate the DMA for a number of reasons, including not allowing developers to incentivize their customers to purchase options outside of the app, which does not benefit Apple financially. He also launched a non-compliance investigation whether Apple discourages developers from hosting their iOS apps on third-party platforms.
In August, Apple announced that it Allow EU users to remove pre-installed apps on iOS 18 to comply with the DMA. It also made the “browser choice screen” clearer and increased the number of default apps that can be replaced with third-party versions.
