Just experienced a sharp decline, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ and now facing the danger of increased antitrust investigation by the U.S. government.

According to Bloomberg, on Tuesday, September 3rd, after the US stock market closed, the US Department of Justice issued subpoenas to NVIDIA and some third-party companies, seeking evidence of NVIDIA's violation of antitrust laws. Antitrust officials are concerned that NVIDIA will make it harder for customers to switch to other AI computing suppliers, and buyers who don't exclusively use their AI chips will be penalized. This news indicates an escalation in the US regulatory authority's investigation into NVIDIA's alleged monopoly in the computing services market.

According to the sources mentioned above, the US Department of Justice had previously issued questionnaires to some companies. Now they are issuing subpoenas that legally compel the companies to provide information. This brings the US government one step closer to filing a formal complaint against NVIDIA.

After the above news was reported, NVIDIA's stock further declined in post-market trading, with a decline of over 2% at one point. On Tuesday, NVIDIA closed down 9.5%, hitting a new low since August 9th. Due to the sharp drop in stock price, NVIDIA's market cap shrank by approximately $278.9 billion in a single day on Tuesday, setting a new record for the largest single-day market cap evaporated by a US stock. The previous record was set by Meta on February 3rd, 2022, with a market cap evaporation of $232 billion.

Representatives from the US Department of Justice and NVIDIA have both declined to comment on this Tuesday's news. However, news that has been circulating for over a year indicates that US government regulation in the AI field is increasing.

In July of last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an investigation into OpenAI's data collection practices and whether they could harm consumers.

In January this year, the FTC's regulatory vision further expanded, and it began to fully examine the strategic cooperation between technology giants and AI startups. This includes Microsoft's huge investment in OpenAI, as well as Google, Amazon's collaboration with Anthropic.

Nearly three months ago, the media reported that the US government initiated an investigation into the AI industry giants, including NVIDIA.

A June article from Wall Street Saw mentioned that the US Department of Justice and the FTC reached an agreement to continue antitrust investigations into Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA's dominant position in the AI industry. According to the agreement, the Department of Justice will lead the investigation into NVIDIA as a chip manufacturing giant's potential violation of antitrust laws, while the FTC will take charge of the antitrust investigation regarding OpenAI and Microsoft.

The article mentioned that some analysts believe this is the most significant signal of escalated antitrust investigations into AI by US regulatory agencies.

In June, there were reports pointing out that the US Department of Justice held a public workshop on AI competition at Stanford University at the end of May. Dozens of industry companies participated in the workshop. Although NVIDIA's name was rarely mentioned during the event, attending companies mentioned that the scarcity of high-performance chips required for training AI foundational models has had a significant impact on the industry.

According to news in June, investigators have been reaching out to other technology companies to gather information. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that the Department of Justice's San Francisco office is leading the investigation.

Editor/Somer