(Reuters) – Chipmaker Nvidia (NASDAQ: ) has completed the acquisition of Israeli AI firm Run:ai, the startup said on Monday, following an antitrust investigation into the purchase.
The European Commission gave unconditional approval to Nvidia's $700 million bid for Run:ai, which helps developers improve AI infrastructure, in early December after saying in October that the deal would require EU antitrust approval.
The EU antitrust watchdog had warned that the deal threatened competition in the markets where the companies operate.
Its investigation into the deal focused on actions that could strengthen Nvidia's dominance in the market for graphics processing units (GPUs), which are in-demand chips often used in AI-connected tasks.
Nvidia dominates the market for AI graphics processors and commands about 80% of its share.
However, the European Commission decided in early December that the purchase of Run:ai, which was announced earlier in April, would not raise competition concerns.
The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating the purchase of tech giant Run:ai on antitrust grounds, Politico reported in August.
Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have recently increased their scrutiny of tech giants' acquisitions of startups over concerns that such deals could shut out potential suitors.
Run:ai plans to make its software open source, it said in a blog post.
While Run:ai currently only supports Nvidia GPUs, open-sourcing the software will allow it to expand its availability to the entire AI ecosystem,” it said.