China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) issued a statement today declaring that NVIDIA’s $6.9 billion acquisition of Mellanox in 2019 violated both the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People’s Republic of China and the restrictive conditions imposed on the deal at the time. Following this preliminary finding, SAMR will launch a deeper investigation—signaling that this transaction, more than five years after its completion, may still carry profound implications for NVIDIA’s strategy in the Chinese market.
Mellanox, renowned for its high-speed Ethernet and InfiniBand chip technologies, has long played a critical role in data centers, cloud storage infrastructures, and AI supercomputing. Its products are essential components in large-scale computing systems. NVIDIA’s decision to acquire Mellanox—its largest purchase in company history—was aimed at integrating advanced interconnect technologies to complement its GPUs, thereby offering a comprehensive server-to-GPU solution and bolstering its competitiveness in the era of artificial intelligence.
Although Chinese regulators approved the deal in 2020 under certain conditions—requiring NVIDIA to maintain openness in technology licensing and ensure fair supply practices—shifts in the global landscape have intensified scrutiny. With the AI chip market becoming increasingly consolidated and U.S.–China tech tensions escalating, China has adopted a more stringent stance toward NVIDIA’s operations.
This preliminary determination of anti-competitive behavior suggests that NVIDIA may be forced to adjust its sales and distribution strategies for AI chips and interconnect products in China. The company might even need to provide additional concessions in order to satisfy regulators.
In recent years, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has made several visits to China, seeking to maintain business stability amid geopolitical frictions and unveiling multiple AI chips specifically tailored to the Chinese market. However, the deepening of regulatory probes threatens to introduce fresh uncertainties for NVIDIA’s operations in the region.
Given today’s global shortage of AI GPUs, any heightened restrictions in China could ripple far beyond NVIDIA, potentially reshaping sales volumes, supply chains, and the broader cloud and AI industry ecosystem.
As of now, NVIDIA has not issued a public response to SAMR’s announcement. Analysts expect protracted negotiations in the coming months, the outcome of which will directly influence the company’s shipment strategies and partnership models in China.
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