French car company sues Nvidia for stealing company data by employee

French automotive company Valeo is suing Nvidia for stealing company data. According to Valeo, a former employee took trade secrets with him to his new job at Nvidia, resulting in financial benefits for the American company.

Some Valeo employees had held a professional video calling session with their former colleague, who was already working for Nvidia, in March 2022. They could according to Bloomberg looked at the screen of their former colleague and suddenly saw some files open containing the source code of the French company.

Valeo reportedly contacted Nvidia about the alleged theft shortly afterwards. The American company stated that in their opinion the employee was not to blame and that the company was also not interested in code from the French automotive company.

Valeo took the ex-employee to court, which ruled in September this year that the man had stolen trade secrets and was therefore guilty. According to reports from the BBC the former Valeo employee also admitted this himself. A few weeks after the conviction, Valeo also sued Nvidia. The French company claims that the American tech giant has made financial gains thanks to the stolen trade secrets.