China launches antitrust probe into Nvidia

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China has launched an antitrust probe into chip giant Nvidia, as competition with the US deepens over the development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Chinese state media on Monday night reported that the State Administration of Market Regulation had in recent days opened an investigation into Nvidia for alleged antitrust violations.

The state media report indicated that China’s market regulator was also reviewing the US chipmaker’s commitments made during its $6.9bn acquisition of Mellanox, an Israeli-American supplier of networking products. China’s market regulator conditionally approved the deal in 2020.

The transaction was the biggest acquisition ever for the US semiconductor company and launched Nvidia deeper into the data centre and high-performance computing markets. Over recent years, Nvidia has become a global market leader in AI chips, with its graphics processing units becoming crucial in developing leading AI models.

The antitrust probe comes a week after Washington unveiled tougher export controls on advanced chips and chipmaking equipment to China, leading Beijing to respond immediately with an embargo on critical materials to the US.

Four Chinese government-backed industry associations, representing the bulk of the country’s semiconductor demand, also issued co-ordinated statements urging member companies to rethink purchases of American silicon that three of them deemed as “no longer safe or reliable”.

US export controls have forced Nvidia to sell watered down versions of its must-have GPUs in China and also given rise to a large black market of smugglers who illegally bring the processors into China.

Washington’s sanctions have made it more difficult for Chinese AI companies to build massive computing clusters like their American rivals, which are thought to be critical to advancing AI development.

The US last week banned exports of advanced memory chips needed by Nvidia’s local rivals such as Huawei for its own AI efforts.

China contributed 15 per cent of Nvidia’s sales in its most recent quarter as tech companies such as ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent continued to spend to build out their AI infrastructure.

Shares in the US group traded down less than 2 per cent in pre-market trading.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by Tim Bradshaw in London