China has launched an antitrust investigation into U.S. chip giant Nvidia in what appears to be Beijing’s latest act of retaliation against Washington’s sanctions on Chinese tech companies.
Chinese state media said on Monday that the California-based chipmaker was being investigated by the State Administration for Market Regulation for potentially violating China’s anti monopoly laws.
Regulators will also review the company’s $6.9bn acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli-American supplier specialising in computer networking products, state media reports said, without providing further details.
Chinese regulators approved the deal in 2020 with several restrictive conditions, including a provision that Nvidia would not discriminate against Chinese suppliers.
Nvidia, which designs advanced chips used to power artificial intelligence, is one of the world’s most valuable companies, with a market capitalisation of more than $3.4 trillion.
The company’s dominance in the AI chips, however, has drawn scrutiny from regulators, including in the United States.
Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice launched its own antitrust investigation into Nvidia, the tech news outlet The Information reported in August, citing people familiar with the matter.
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Shares of Nvidia closed 2.55 percent lower on Monday following the news of Beijing’s probe.
Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China’s anti monopoly probe comes a week after the US Department of Commerce announced its third round of export controls aimed at keeping advanced technology out of the hands of the Chinese chip industry.
The restrictions added 140 additional Chinese companies to the department’s Entity List of blacklisted firms.
In what has become a tit-for-tat exchange of trade restrictions, Beijing last week banned exports of gallium, germanium and antimony – which are used in the production of chips, solar panels and electric vehicle batteries, among other technologies – to the US.
Ian Chong, a Singapore-based political scientist focusing on security issues, said Beijing’s recent moves are more symbolic than damaging.
Al Jazeera.com
