Nvidia violated antimonopoly laws, China claims

China accused Nvidia on Monday of violating the country’s antimonopoly laws and said it would step up scrutiny of the world’s leading chipmaker, escalating tensions with Washington as the two countries held trade talks this week.

Chinese regulators said a preliminary investigation found that Nvidia didn’t comply with conditions imposed when it purchased Mellanox Technologies, a network and data transmission company.

The one-sentence statement from the State Administration for Market Regulation did not mention any punishment, but said it would carry out “further investigation”.

Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.

Regulators said in December that they were investigating the company for suspected violations stemming from the 6.9 billion dollar acquisition of Mellanox. The deal was completed in 2020 after the Chinese regulator gave conditional approval for Nvidia to buy the Israeli company.

The announcement, which came as the two sides held trade talks in Spain, is the latest tit-for-tat move between Washington and Beijing in their trade battle over technology, focusing on semiconductors and the equipment to make them.

On Saturday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was carrying out an antidumping investigation into certain analogue IC chips imported from the US, including commodity chips commonly made by companies such as Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor.

The ministry also announced a separate anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector.

A day earlier, the US had sanctioned two Chinese companies accused of acquiring equipment for major Chinese chipmaker SMIC.

The talks in Madrid between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Madrid concluded on Monday with Mr Bessent telling reporters the two sides reached a framework deal for US ownership of TikTok.

However, details were scant and Chinese negotiators provided no confirmation of a deal.

It’s the fourth round of discussions and the two governments have agreed to several 90-day pauses on a series of increasing reciprocal tariffs, staving off an all-out trade war.

Nvidia has become central to the US-China trade war, as the two sides battle for tech supremacy. The artificial intelligence boom has fuelled demand for Nvidia’s advanced processors, making it the world’s most valuable company.

The company has faced restrictions on chip exports to China imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration that were then reinforced by President Donald Trump.

Nvidia won approval in July from the Trump administration to sell China its H20 graphics processing unit, which is less powerful and designed to comply with US export curbs.