BRUSSELS, Oct 31 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA )

will have to seek EU antitrust clearance for its

proposed acquisition of AI startup Run:ai because it threatens

competition in the markets where the companies operate, the

European Commission said on Thursday.

The move by the EU antitrust enforcer may require Nvidia ( NVDA ) to

offer concessions to secure its approval for the deal.

Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have recently increased

their scrutiny of tech deals, especially by tech giants.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) announced the acquisition of the Israeli firm in

April which will be bought for around $700 million according to

a report by Tech Crunch.

Run:ai's technology allows developers and teams to manage

and optimize their artificial intelligence infrastructure.

While the deal does not meet the EU turnover threshold

requiring Nvidia ( NVDA ) to request EU approval, it was notified to the

Italian competition agency which subsequently asked the EU

watchdog to take up the case.

The Commission said it accepted the Italian request and

warned of the competition risks from the deal.

"The transaction threatens to significantly affect

competition in the markets where NVIDIA ( NVDA ) and Run:ai are active,

which are likely to be at least European Economic Area-wide and

therefore include the referring country Italy," it said in a

statement.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) has posted soaring profits and revenues over the past

year as its processors become the gold standard in the chip

industry due to their ability to power AI applications,

including training models like ChatGPT.