Nvidia Pauses Revenue-Sharing Program With AI Cloud Partners Amid Antitrust Concerns

Nvidia has reportedly paused certain deals under a recently introduced financing program that provided credit support to AI cloud companies in exchange for a share of their revenue, according to a report citing people familiar with the matter.

Internal Concerns Over Legal Risk

Some employees within the company reportedly raised concerns to both current and potential customers that the initiative could attract antitrust scrutiny. The company is said to have stepped back from parts of the program recently, though it may still revise the structure or incorporate it into another initiative.

How the Program Worked

Introduced roughly two months ago, the initiative was designed to help AI cloud firms finance purchases of Nvidia’s high cost chips. In return, Nvidia sought the ability to rent back unused computing capacity and earn a portion of cloud revenue generated using its hardware, in addition to standard chip sales revenue.

Pushback From Partners

Reports indicate some prospective partners were uncomfortable with the level of control Nvidia sought over how they operated, including restrictions on which customers could access rented capacity and a preference for distributing capacity across multiple smaller firms rather than one large buyer.