Chinese Authorities Launch Antitrust Investigation Against NVIDIA

NVIDIA faces scrutiny from Chinese regulators over potential antitrust violations related to its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies.

NVIDIA, the big shot in graphics chips and a heavyweight in the AI arena, is now in the hot seat with Chinese regulators digging into possible antitrust issues, as The New York Times spills the tea. The spotlight’s on their 2020 grab of Mellanox Technologies, a networking whiz. Bloomberg chimes in, saying China’s regulators slapped a rule on NVIDIA: ‘Share the scoop on new Mellanox goodies with rivals within 90 days of getting them yourself.’ But guess what? The State Administration for Market Regulation in China thinks NVIDIA might’ve played fast and loose with these rules.

This isn’t NVIDIA’s first rodeo with antitrust probes—remember the US Department of Justice poking around back in September 2024? But this time, it’s got extra spice thanks to the US-China trade war drama. Just when you thought it couldn’t get more intense, the US Department of Commerce dropped a bombshell on December 1, putting the squeeze on 140 Chinese chip toolmakers and blocking ‘China-bound shipments of high bandwidth memory chips,’ Reuters reports. The goal? To put a leash on China’s AI ambitions by cutting off the chips that fuel them. Not to be outdone, China hit back, slamming the door on US shipments of gallium, germanium, and antimony.

Here’s the kicker: NVIDIA’s H100 GPUs are the unsung heroes behind most generative AI models today, and even with the shiny new Blackwell chips entering the scene, that’s not changing anytime soon. This golden goose status has shot NVIDIA to the top of the corporate food chain, making it a magnet for government scrutiny. And with about 15% of its dough coming from China, as Bloomberg notes, this probe is more than just a blip—it’s the latest chess move in the US-China power struggle, no matter how it plays out.