China\u2019s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has announced a preliminary finding that Nvidia breached the country’s anti-monopoly law in relation to the American chipmaker\u2019s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli networking and hardware company, in 2020. The regulator flagged that Nvidia did not fully respect conditions tied to China\u2019s approval of the deal.<\/p>\n
The acquisition, for about US$ 6.9 billion at the time, was conditionally approved in April 2020. One of the key requirements was that Nvidia must supply Mellanox\u2019s interconnect hardware, network equipment, and relevant software to Chinese customers under principles of fairness, reasonableness and non\u00addiscrimination. Although the deal involved an US and an Israeli company, Beijing\u2019s approval was required because the combined business had significant operations in China.<\/p>\n
SAMR, which opened the antitrust probe last December, has not yet publicly specified which of those obligations Nvidia is believed to have violated. The regulator says it will continue investigating and may impose further penalties. Under China\u2019s anti-monopoly law, violations can carry fines of between 1% and 10% of the previous year\u2019s sales.<\/p>\n
The market reaction was swift: Nvidia\u2019s shares dropped around 2% in pre-market trading in response to SAMR\u2019s announcement. Investors appear concerned about the risk of sanctions, and the possibility that China may restrict future hardware sales by Nvidia.<\/p>\n
This development comes amid tense US-China relations over semiconductors and export controls. Nvidia has already faced export restrictions from the US, particularly concerning its AI-orientated chips, and Chinese authorities have been scrutinising its \u201cH20\u201d chip, the variant designed to comply with American export limitations.<\/p>\n
The timing may also be politically loaded. The announcement coincides with US-China trade talks in Madrid, where high tech, market access and regulation are high on the agenda. China\u2019s move may strengthen its bargaining position, especially as both sides negotiate over tariffs, chip export policy, and the supply chain for AI and data centre infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China\u2019s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has announced a preliminary finding that Nvidia breached the country’s anti-monopoly law in relation to the American chipmaker\u2019s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[229,228],"tags":[1528,1529,82,1530,674,1531],"class_list":["post-2100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-china-antitrust","tag-chip-industry","tag-featured","tag-mellanox","tag-nvidia","tag-samr"],"yoast_head":"\n