NVIDIA Acquisition of Israeli AI Startup Run:ai Moving Forward: EU Commission Grants Full Merger Approval

The European Commission has unconditionally approved NVIDIA Corporation’s proposed acquisition of Israeli AI startup Run:ai Labs Ltd under the EU Merger Regulation (EUMR). The Commission determined that the transaction poses no competition concerns within the European Economic Area (EEA). However, the deal still faces antitrust scrutiny from the US Department of Justice (DOJ).

“The activities of NVIDIA and Run:ai do not overlap, but GPUs and GPU orchestration software must be compatible.,” said the European Commission. “The Commission assessed whether, post-transaction, NVIDIA would be able to hamper the compatibility between its GPUs and the GPU orchestration software of Run:ai’s competitors, and the compatibility between Run:ai’s software and the GPUs of NVIDIA’s competitors.”

In April, Jewish Business News reported on Nvidia’s plans to acquire two Israeli startups: Run:ai and Deci AI. And yes, as their names imply they both deal with artificial intelligence. Run:ai was already bought out for an undisclosed amount, but Israel’s Calcalist reported that the deal could be for as much as $700 million and that a deal to acquire Deci AI was close at hand.

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In September, Jewish Business News reported on how the US DOJ is reportedly investigating Nvidia for potential antitrust violations related to its AI chipsets. Sources close to the matter told Bloomberg that officials are concerned about the company’s design choices, which may make it difficult for customers to switch to rival vendors. This could potentially punish buyers who do not exclusively use Nvidia’s AI chips. The investigation has intensified, with subpoenas now being issued to company executives.

“We compete based on decades of investment and innovation, scrupulously adhering to all laws, making Nvidia openly available in every cloud and on-prem for every enterprise, and ensuring that customers can choose whatever solution is best for them,” an Nvidia spokesperson told Reuters at the time.

Founded in 2018 by CEO Omri Geller and CTO Dr. Ronen Dar who met as students in engineering at Tel Aviv University while working on their Master’s and PhD Degrees, respectively, Run:ai helps companies execute on their AI initiatives “quickly, while keeping budgets under control, virtualizing expensive hardware resources in order to pool, share and allocate your resources efficiently.”

By “efficiently managing” GPU resources, Run:ai says it helps organizations maximize the performance of their AI models. The firm also provides tools to manage and schedule AI jobs across different hardware and cloud environments. Run:ai enables faster experimentation and iteration by streamlining the AI development process.

Run:ai is primarily aimed at organizations that heavily rely on AI and machine learning, such as tech companies, research institutions, financial institutions, healthcare providers and more.

NVIDIA is a global technology powerhouse specializing in accelerated computing. Originally renowned for its groundbreaking graphics processing units (GPUs), the company has evolved into a dominant force in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and autonomous vehicles.