Nvidia’s proposed $700M acquisition of AI startup Run:ai faces EU antitrust scrutiny

AI chip powerhouse Nvidia is hitting an EU antitrust hurdle with its planned $700 million acquisition of Israeli AI startup Run:ai. The European Commission announced Thursday that it would review the deal, raising competition concerns in the markets where both companies operate.

The EU’s move means Nvidia may have to offer concessions to get the green light for the acquisition, reflecting a broader trend: tech giants are under sharper scrutiny in both Europe and the U.S., especially on acquisitions that could squeeze out competitors, Reuters reported.

Nvidia first announced its intention to buy Run in April. The Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup provides tools that simplify AI hardware management for developers and operations teams. The deal was valued at around $700 million, according to TechCrunch, which first reported the acquisition

Although the acquisition didn’t hit the EU’s turnover threshold for automatic approval, Italy’s competition agency flagged it, prompting the EU to step in.

“The transaction threatens to significantly affect competition in the markets where NVIDIA and Run:ai are active, which are likely to be at least European Economic Area-wide and therefore include the referring country Italy,” the Commission said in a statement.

Nvidia, with its chips widely known as the go-to for AI applications, has been riding a wave of growth in profits and revenue, thanks largely to its processors’ role in training tools like ChatGPT. Now, with EU regulators involved, Nvidia’s next steps will be key as it tackles this antitrust challenge while eyeing the AI infrastructure space.

Run:ai was founded in 2018 by Omri and Ronen Dar, who studied together at Tel Aviv University under Professor Meir Feder, now the company’s third co-founder. Together, Geller, Dar, and Feder aimed to build a platform capable of breaking AI models into fragments that can run simultaneously across different hardware environments—whether on-premises, in public clouds, or at the edge.

Run:AI co-founders Omri Geller and Ronen Dar. (Photo: Eliran Rubin)