Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs
On December 9, CCTV reported that the Chinese market regulator with authority to handle antitrust issues had opened an investigation into Nvidia Group during its operations in the East Asian country.
Nvidia is accused of violating commitments made in 2020, when the US corporation acquired Israeli technology firm Mellanox for $6.9 billion.
Mellanox was then said to be the key to enabling a strategic approach involving data masterminds operating artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore, this deal needs approval from market regulators in the US, Israel, the European Union and China.
After a period of appraisal, the Chinese market regulator approved the Mellanox deal in April 2020. It is unclear what anti-monopoly laws Nvidia violated in connection with its commitment at that time.
Nvidia shares fell after China announced the investigation.
The incident took place in the context of tensions between the US and China in recent weeks over export restrictions related to chip manufacturing technology, of which Nvidia is the main force.
Beijing last week announced a ban on exports of some materials needed to produce semiconductors to the US, after Washington implemented measures to limit China’s capacity in high-power chip manufacturing.
Among the materials banned from export by China are the metals gallium, antimony and germanium, citing national security concerns.
For its part, the US added the names of 140 Chinese companies to the list of chip export restrictions, including Piotech and SiCarrier.
