NVIDIA has been accused by China for violating the country’s anti-monopoly law, marking the latest point of contention in the ongoing trade war with the US. The claim comes after Chinese market regulators made a preliminary probe, and while it provided no further details, it is believed that the issue stems from the company’s acquisition of Mellanox.
As a quick primer, NVIDIA acquired the Israeli-owned Mellanox Technologies back in 2019. The company is known primarily for its high-speed networking equipment, and the GPU bundles said equipment with its advanced hardware.
One of the latter’s conditions was that NVIDIA continue to supply the Chinese market with high-tech GPU chips, a promise that ended when the previous Biden administration signed the order to limit the exportation of US-made advanced chips to the Asian powerhouse.
The claim also serves as a sign that NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to China – the man visited the country three times this year, as part of an ongoing initiative to affirm his company’s commitment to the Chinese market – has been insufficient in stemming the anger from both countries.
China’s statement came just as it and the US began holding trade talks in the city of Madrid, Spain. Unsurprisingly, the US wasn’t happy with the announcement, claiming it was “poor timing” on China’s part.
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past several months, both China and the US have been trading blows with each other ever since President Trump slapped massive tariffs on the country, before finally lowering them to the current 30%. China has retaliated with its own 10% tariffs on US goods, along with antitrust probes against Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
“This should not be taken as a sign that China is trying to kick NVIDIA out of the country,” Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at Omdia, said about the ongoing probe.
(Source: Reuters)
