China accuses Nvidia of violating the country's antitrust laws at the height of trade tensions

China on Monday stepped up its scrutiny of NVIDIA, the world's top chipmaker, accusing it of violating the country's anti-monopoly laws.

The State Administration for Market Regulation announced, through a communication, that a preliminary investigation determined that the technology company breached conditions imposed following the acquisition of Mellanox Technologies in 2020, for $6.9 billion. Although no penalties were specified, the Chinese regulator noted that it will continue with "a more thorough investigation."

For its part, a NVIDIA spokesperson denied the Chinese allegations and responded, “We comply with the law in all respects. We will continue to cooperate with all relevant government agencies as they evaluate the impact of export controls on competition in the commercial markets,” according to a report from Breitbart.

The announcement comes at a time of rising trade tensions between China and the United States, as the two countries held talks in Madrid on trade deals over the TikTok company.

U.S.-China tensions over chips

On Saturday, China's Ministry of Commerce initiated an anti-dumping investigation on analog chips imported from the U.S. manufactured by companies such as Texas Instruments and ON Semiconductor, in addition to an anti-dumping inquiry against U.S. measures affecting the Chinese chip sector.

A day earlier, on Friday, the U.S. sanctioned two Chinese companies accused of procuring U.S. equipment for SMIC (Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing Corp), China's largest chipmaker.