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China has revived antitrust investigations into Google and Nvidia, while considering a new probe against Intel, as Beijing looks for leverage in talks with US President Donald Trump.
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced on Tuesday that it had opened an competition investigation into Google, which two people familiar with the matter said would focus on dominance of the US group’s Android operating system and any harm caused to Chinese phonemakers, such as Oppo and Xiaomi, which use the software.
Chinese regulators, who announced a similar antitrust investigation into Nvidia in December, were now also looking at launching a formal probe into Intel, said two people familiar with the situation.
However, the nature of the probe into the US chipmaker remained unclear, one of the people said, adding whether it was officially launched could be affected by the state of US-China relations. President Xi Jinping is expected to speak to Trump in the coming days.
The tech investigations “may be part of the retaliatory measures”, made by China in response to Trump’s new tariffs against the country, said Liu Xu, a researcher at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University.
Xu added that using antitrust investigations as a tool in trade negotiations might not be the best way to protect Chinese companies hit by US tariffs. “It would inevitably spark controversy,” he said.
Beijing’s scramble to build cases against prominent US tech companies comes as they are increasingly caught in the crossfire of growing tensions between the two global powers.
The Google probe, which regulators first began in 2019, had been shelved for years, but was reopened in December, according to two people familiar with the matter. That move came just before Donald Trump was sworn in as US president, who had run an election campaign vowing to impose steep tariffs against Chinese goods.
Given new urgency to launch the probe, SAMR regulators visited Google’s Beijing office in January before Trump came into office and demanded related information to be handed over, according to the people.
The outgoing Biden Administration also used its final months to step up export controls on advanced chips, seeking to curb China’s growing AI capabilities.
During this period, SAMR announced in December it was investigating claims about Nvidia violating commitments made during its 2019 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli company that makes computer networking equipment.
SAMR approved the acquisition in 2020 with conditions to prevent anti-competitive practices and ensure supplies to China, and soon thereafter began to quietly collect complaints from industry, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The probe came as a surprise to Nvidia, the world’s largest maker of advanced AI semiconductors.
Days prior to the SAMR announcement, Nvidia’s executives met with China’s Ministry of Commerce to discuss the $2.9bn chipmaker’s operations in its second biggest market outside the US, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting.
One of those people said the Mofcom officials advised “Nvidia is welcome to continue growing its business in China”. The country represents 13 per cent of its global sales during the first three quarters of 2024, according to company filings.
The antitrust investigations into large US tech companies could lead to fines linked to the companies global revenues, or losing certain market access in one of their largest international markets.
China is Intel’s largest market worldwide, exceeding its home turf. The US chipmaker recorded $15.5bn sales in the country in 2024, accounting for 29 per cent of its global revenue, according to company filings.
While Google’s search engine is blocked in China, along with most of its parent company Alphabet’s businesses, the US company profits from Chinese businesses advertising abroad. Chinese phonemakers also mostly use its Android operating system.
Alphabet does not break out its revenue from China, but the Asia-Pacific region contributed 17 per cent of sales in 2023.
Google and Nvidia declined to comment. Intel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Beijing-based Mofcom and SAMR didn’t respond to faxed questions requesting comment outside working hours.
Additional reporting from Wenjie Ding in Beijing
