Nvidia Stock Slips as Chinese Regulators Announce Anti-Monopoly Probe

Key Takeaways

• Nvidia shares slipped Monday morning after a Chinese regulator said it is investigating the chipmaker.
• The State Administration for Market Regulation said it is investigating Nvidia over its 2020 acquisition of Mellanox Technologies.
• Regulators in China and other nations approved the deal, with Chinese officials requiring conditions such as Nvidia not discriminating against Chinese companies.

Nvidia (NVDA) shares moved lower in premarket trading Monday after China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it was investigating the chipmaking giant for potential violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws.

The antitrust regulator said Monday that it is looking into Nvidia over the chipmaker’s 2020 acquisition of Israeli-American networking hardware maker Mellanox Technologies. SAMR said it “is opening a probe into Nvidia in accordance with the law,” according to a translation of the statement from CNBC.

The $6.9 billion deal was announced in March 2019 and completed in April 2020, days after the same Chinese regulators signed off on the deal along with regulators in Europe, Mexico, and the U.S.

Approval for the deal came with the conditions from Chinese regulators that Nvidia wouldn’t discriminate against Chinese companies and that Mellanox informed competitors of new products within 90 days of providing them to Nvidia, according to Bloomberg.

Nvidia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shares of the chipmaker that have surged thanks to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom were down more than 2% in premarket trading Monday, but have still risen over 180% since the start of the year.

Update, Dec. 9, 2024: This article has been updated to include information from CNBC’s translation of SAMR’s Monday statement.