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Nvidia’s $100B OpenAI deal sparks antitrust scrutiny over AI dominance

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Nvidia’s plan to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI — while supplying the ChatGPT maker with millions of AI chips — is raising alarms among antitrust experts who warn the partnership could distort competition in a market already dominated by a handful of tech giants.

Nvidia controls more than half of the GPU market, the essential chips powering AI data centers. Experts caution that a financial tie to OpenAI could give Nvidia incentives to favor one customer over rivals through preferential pricing or faster delivery. “They’re financially interested in each other’s success. That creates an incentive for Nvidia to not sell chips to, or not sell chips on the same terms to, other competitors of OpenAI,” said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a Vanderbilt Law School antitrust professor.

Andre Barlow, an antitrust lawyer, said the deal raises “significant antitrust concerns,” though the Trump administration’s pro-business stance complicates the outlook. President Donald Trump has emphasized both removing regulatory hurdles to accelerate AI growth and using antitrust enforcement to ensure long-term competition.

The scale of the deal highlights how expensive frontier AI has become. “The cost of chips, data centers and power has pushed the industry toward a handful of firms able to finance projects on that scale,” said Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University. Nvidia’s top two customers already account for nearly 40% of its revenue, underscoring its reliance on concentrated buyers.

Under President Biden, regulators had warned Big Tech could use scale to dominate AI. The DOJ and FTC pursued early inquiries into exclusionary conduct around AI resources. The Trump administration has kept many Big Tech cases alive, with DOJ antitrust head Gail Slater saying last week enforcement must focus on preventing bottlenecks: “The competitive dynamics of each layer of the AI stack and how they interrelate… are legitimate areas for antitrust inquiry.”

For now, Nvidia insists its investment won’t alter its sales practices: “We will continue to make every customer a top priority, with or without any equity stake,” a spokesperson said. OpenAI declined to comment.

Trump’s AI plan backs antitrust scrutiny, DOJ official says

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U.S. antitrust authorities are closely watching the artificial intelligence industry for anticompetitive practices as part of the Trump administration’s broader push to secure American leadership in AI, a senior Justice Department official said on Thursday.

Speaking at Fordham University, Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater emphasized that protecting competition in the AI sector is key to fostering innovation. “The competitive dynamics of each layer of the AI stack and how they interrelate, with a particular eye towards exclusionary behavior that forecloses access to key inputs and distribution channels, are legitimate areas for antitrust inquiry,” she said.

One major focus will be access to data. Slater noted that a judge in Washington recently ordered Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) to share some search data with rivals, including AI firms, to strengthen competition in online search. Google has said it will appeal the ruling.

Slater added that demand for data could fuel vertical integration—mergers between companies and their suppliers—especially in sensitive areas such as healthcare. “We may also increasingly see the desire to acquire data, or to deprive rivals of data, play a role in driving transactions,” she said.

Open-source AI models are another area of interest. Slater said such models can enhance competition, but stressed that “a truly open-source model must be one that is not unilaterally maintained by a single vendor that exerts unwarranted influence and impose restrictions.”

Concerns about AI competition were also voiced during President Joe Biden’s administration, which scrutinized Big Tech’s partnerships with AI startups. Trump’s AI plan, however, explicitly ties antitrust enforcement to the goal of strengthening U.S. dominance in the sector.

Beijing ends Google probe, shifts focus to Nvidia in U.S. trade talks

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China has decided to end its antitrust investigation into Google, signaling a strategic shift as trade negotiations with Washington intensify over TikTok and Nvidia, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The move indicates Beijing is redirecting regulatory pressure toward Nvidia as a bargaining tool in the ongoing trade talks, while closing the Google probe as a gesture of flexibility toward the United States.

According to the report, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, which launched the investigation against Google in February, has dropped the case. The regulator had previously suggested Google might have violated China’s anti-monopoly law but did not provide further details. Google has reportedly not yet been formally notified of the decision.

Earlier this week, Chinese authorities accused Nvidia of breaching anti-monopoly rules following a preliminary review of its business practices. The shift comes amid heightened tensions, with both nations trading tariffs and regulatory measures in recent months. Washington imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods and threatened to ban TikTok, while Beijing responded with its own tariffs and investigations targeting U.S. tech firms, including Google.