cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/9700996

Nvidia's AI customers are scared to be seen courting other AI chipmakers for fear of retaliatory shipment delays, says rival firm

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[–] 166 points 2 years ago (5 children)

That should be your very first clue that Nvidia needs to be broken up into smaller, competing companies.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    How do you imagine that would work?

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (12 children)

    Limit them producing PCIe cards to low volume reference models and require their software to be open source to break that aspect of the lock-in, that's the two big things. As alternative to the latter, require them to have actual platform docs, right now they're not only providing the only compiler for their cards which is deliberately incompatible with everything else they're also making sure that noone else can get performance out of NVidia cards without excessive reverse-engineering, some things are even locked down hard via firmware signing. Splitting AI off from GPU would be a bonus.

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    [–] 111 points 2 years ago (16 children)

    Monopolies gonna monopoly. Fuck Jensen.

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    [–] 53 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If only there were some sort of anti-monopoly laws that existed and were actually enforced…

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The FTC has at least been going after companies again, but their targeting priorities seem very strange. They seem to like picking impossible fights they can't win, rather than cases like these.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Antitrust isn't about just a binary win or loss. A lot of the cases, the FTC/DOJ has been losing because of concessions made by the merging parties. By showing a willingness to fight on mergers, the FTC is influencing the structure of mergers where merging companies are now willing to specifically identify business units to be spun off or sold.

    Microsoft/Activision agreed to terms that would prevent their biggest titles from going Xbox exclusive. The Court that allowed the merger to go through specifically cited public statements and legally binding contracts as part of the reason why that deal could go through. The willingness to fight forced Microsoft to preserve some level of competition.

    And a lot of the other deals haven't gone through. The FTC successfully blocked the merger between Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster. The Nvidia/ARM deal was blocked. So was the Amazon/iRobot deal.

    The smaller deals they've successfully blocked are also shifting the legal landscape on how courts view these deals. Nobody outside of biotech is familiar with names like Illumina/Grail, but that FTC win is a big deal for applying to a vertical merger between companies operating at different points of a supply chain, rather than a horizontal merger between direct competitors.

    The heightened regulatory scrutiny is chilling mergers, even before they get to the point of FTC review, too. So there is some concrete effect here.

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  • [+] 38 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
    [removed by mod]
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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Lol hilarious watching companies be ruthless then scramble to keep shit together since they only want to line exec pockets and don't tackle real issues

    Fuck them, their customers, fuck their execs 🤞

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    [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    I guess the monopoly has to be preserved, so that Mr. Jensen has pocket money for another leather jacket.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago*

    I did some contract work for nvidia a few years ago to build out a data center for a client in the domain of pharmaceutical research. I've never worked for any employer more hypersensitive and narcissistic than nvidia. They will waste your time and fire you on the spot if you voice any concerns.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    I wonder who this riva^(md)l is.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    Gaussian, the molecular modeling software company, liked to do similar shit.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    No way they would do something like that!

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