Nvidia's French offices raided by authorities

The news: France's competition authority has raided chip maker Nvidia's local offices amid competition concerns following a broader inquiry into the cloud computing sector. The French authority has not confirmed the target of the raid, nor which practices it was investigating, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The numbers: Investors appeared unfazed by the raid, with Nvidia's share price rising 3.6% since Monday to USD430.89 ($670.91). Its price is up more than 190% from their yearly open of USD148.51, after the excitement around generative chat models like OpenAI's ChatGPT stoked an AI boom, driving massive demand for — and a subsequent shortage in — Nvidia's powerful computer chips. Nvidia's valuation topped USD1 trillion in June.

The context: Cloud computing services — led by Microsoft, Amazon and Google, which own thousands of Nvidia chips — run large data centres and rent out computing power to other companies and governments. The French inquiry into competition in the sector noted increasing use of AI would drive demand for chips in cloud computing and said regulators should “ensure that established players do not hinder the development of smaller or new players”.