China’s Regulatory Recalibration: Drops Google Antitrust Probe, Crosshairs Now On Nvidia

China has concluded its antitrust investigation into Google’s Android empire in the world’s largest handset market, a move that should be viewed as a tactical concession in U.S.-China trade talks and TikTok negotiations.

President Trump and President Xi are set to discuss trade on Friday, with negotiations for TikTok still underway. At the same time, Beijing has tightened pressure on Nvidia, banning major Chinese tech firms from buying certain AI chips earlier this week. 

The Financial Times reports that the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) has terminated its competition investigation into Google, which was formally opened in February and focused on the Android operating system and its impact on domestic brands, including Oppo and Xiaomi.

“Drop one case but seize the other,” said one person familiar with SAMR operations, adding, “China is trying to narrow its retaliatory targets to make them more potent.”

On Monday, SAMR, China’s top market regulator, ruled that Nvidia had violated anti-monopoly laws in its acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, an Israeli-American networking products supplier. The antitrust review began in 2019. 

By Wednesday, the Cyberspace Administration barred Alibaba, ByteDance, and other tech firms from purchasing Nvidia’s AI chips, including the RTX Pro 6000D, which was custom-built for the Chinese market. Domestic chips, mostly, achieved the same performance as Nvidia’s model. 

“Google barely has any meaningful business in China — this is purely a symbolic gesture of goodwill,” Vey-Sern Ling, a managing director at Union Bancaire Privee, told Bloomberg. “Every favor is counted, even those that don’t cost anything.”

China’s regulatory recalibration to focus on Nvidia comes as Beijing and Washington ramp up negotiations over TikTok, with Trump scheduled to speak with Xi tomorrow.

Mounting Chinese pressure on Nvidia comes as the chart below shows that upside price action has stalled since mid-August. The $180 level is the current resistance.

Crypto czar David Sacks lists major China news in the AI race: 

There was major news from China in the AI race this week:
1. Huawei introduced a new AI chip to compete with Nvidia.
2. The Chinese government instructed Chinese companies to stop buying certain Nvidia AI chips.

Taken together, the message is clear: China is not desperate for… pic.twitter.com/KcrrI7WJCs

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) September 18, 2025

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