Nvidia has completed its acquisition of AI startup Run:ai for $700 million, shortly after the European Commission, the region’s main industry regulator, approved the deal this month following an investigation that found no threats to competition.
Image source: NVIDIA
Earlier this month, the European Commission approved Nvidia’s purchase of Tel Aviv-based startup Run:ai, which provides infrastructure optimization services for managing artificial intelligence workloads. The regulator concluded that the merger would not cause problems with competition within the European Economic Area.
As part of the investigation, the European Commission examined how the merger could affect the strengthening of Nvidia’s position in the graphics accelerator market, where the American company already has a dominant position. Nvidia also leads the AI GPU segment with about 80% share. Despite this, the regulator approved the deal because the activities of Nvidia and Run:ai do not overlap. It was also noted that the Israeli startup does not currently occupy a significant position in the market in question.
Simultaneously with the announcement of the closing of the deal, Run:ai announced its intention to open source its software. “While Run:ai currently only supports Nvidia GPUs, the software’s open source nature will allow it to expand its availability across the entire AI ecosystem,” the startup said in a statement.