China significantly escalated its trade standoff with the United States Monday, saying that tech giant Nvidia, the most valuable company on the US stock market and a key provider of artificial-intelligence chips, had violated anti-monopoly laws.
Chinese regulators’ announcement of the results of their preliminary antitrust probe comes as US and Chinese diplomats hold their fourth round of trade talks in Madrid this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, leading the talks for the United States, said Sunday that discussions had been progressing well.
But the Trump administration had also upped the pressure leading into the talks. On Friday, the US Commerce Department placed two Chinese chipmakers on the so-called Entity List, barring GMC Semiconductor Technology Co. and Jicun Semiconductor Technology from purchasing US semiconductor technology.
Despite ongoing trade talks, China and the United States have engaged in tit-for-tat responses to one another’s trade actions as they try to extract leverage out of a tense situation. The United States, for example, has largely banned exports of key equipment for AI technology to China, while China has slow-rolled promises to provide rare-earth minerals used in a wide variety of electronics and defense equipment.
China’s latest move against Nvidia represents a much more aggressive action and a possible signal to the United States that recent Trump administration promises to open up Nvidia chips to China may not be viewed as favorably as the White House expected. Both China and the United States believe AI and the chips that power it are crucial for national security. Although China’s technology is currently behind America’s, it is catching up.
Continue reading the complete article on the original source
