Nvidia is very involved in the automotive industry. Like other sectors, the automobile industry is in high demand for electronic chips for its vehicles and for the development of artificial intelligence projects.
It is therefore not surprising that Valeo, one of the main equipment manufacturers, and Nvidia are associated on joint projects. The skills of Valeo engineers are also of interest to the GPU founder’s teams.
A dishonest employee convicted of stealing secrets
Free competition. A problem arises, however, when an employee leaves the company with data from their employer. So this is what happened with a German defector from Valeo, who joined the ranks of Nvidia.
The engineer did not, however, leave empty-handed, taking with him gigabytes of data and source code from his previous employer. The theft was revealed following a videoconference between the culprit and Valeo employees.
They recognize files and an investigation is triggered. In total, the unscrupulous ex-employee took 6 GB of data, software code, and thousands of files. A search will confirm the theft, condemned this year by German courts.
Has Nvidia taken advantage of this intellectual property as part of its own developments for autonomous driving? This is what Valeo considers, which is now taking legal action against the Silicon Valley company.
Autonomous systems: a $400 billion market
The growth prospects for the autonomous vehicle market ($400 billion by 2035, Bloomberg points out) leave no room for doubt. Especially since several players in the sector have been splashed by comparable cases
Apple, Tesla and Google’s Waymo have accused former employees of having stolen industrial secrets before moving on to the competition. Nvidia nevertheless denies any use of Valeo data.
“Nvidia has no interest in Valeo’s code or its alleged trade secrets and has quickly taken concrete steps to protect the rights claimed by your client,” replied the law firm representing the American company in 2022.
Nvidia highlights its cooperation in the criminal investigation carried out against its employee and which led to his conviction. Its own internal investigations would also demonstrate that no damage would have been inflicted on Valeo.
Nvidia accused of taking a shortcut
The French equipment manufacturer is not convinced. He therefore filed a complaint in California on November 7. The industrialist believes that Nvidia has used its data to accelerate its own developments while it has spent billions of dollars designing driver assistance systems.
Valeo judges that the “bad conduct” of its ex-engineer resulted in an “illegitimate advantage” for the benefit of a competitor.
“Nvidia’s attempts to take a shortcut to market by exploiting Valeo’s stolen software render costly investments in technology futile and harm innovation,” denounces the Frenchman in his complaint.