Senator Warren Questions Nvidia SchedMD Acquisition

U.S. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent a letter to the U.S. secretaries of the United States — United States Department of Energy and the United States — United States Department of Defense, questioning Nvidia's acquisition of SchedMD, the developer of Slurm software. Warren expressed concerns that Nvidia's acquisition of SchedMD, which makes software crucial for U.S. government supercomputers, could reduce competition and harm national security by giving Nvidia disproportionate control over a critical chokepoint. She requested information about the government's dependency on Nvidia's hardware and software and whether national security risks related to the SchedMD acquisition have been assessed. Nvidia, which also acquired Bright Computing in 2022 and Nvidia — Run:ai in 2024, stated that its Slurm software is open-source and provides enhancements for everyone. The acquisition of SchedMD was not disclosed in terms of size, but the software powers about 60% of supercomputers worldwide.