China’s Administration for Market Regulation has initiated an antitrust investigation into Nvidia, the world’s top AI processor provider, amid the growing U.S.-China rivalry over AI, a sector both countries view as essential for national security, Chinese state media reported on Monday.
Chinese authorities suspect Nvidia’s purchase of Israeli networking company Mellanox in 2020 may violate China’s anti-monopoly rules.
The report did not clarify how the alleged infringement may have occurred, despite the Chinese government having approved the deal at the time.
Nvidia fell less than 2% in pre-market trading on Monday. The company’s shares have been one of the top performers this year, rising nearly 200% on soaring demand for AI chips.
The investigation follows the US’ latest notice of its third round of restrictions on semiconductors targeting China.
Beijing has strongly condemned the move, which restricts exports from 140 Chinese companies, including chip equipment makers. China has responded by imposing export controls on key technology components to the US.
Founded in 1993, Nvidia is a leading developer of graphics processing units (GPUs), graphics cards, AI solutions, high-performance computing, and system-on-chip products for various industries.