China closes Google antitrust probe as trade talks with US advance

Beijing has ended its investigation into Google. Nvidia is now under regulatory focus amid trade tensions between the US and China

China has decided to end its antitrust investigation into Google, coinciding with renewed trade discussions with Washington over TikTok and Nvidia, The Financial Times reported on Thursday.

 

The move indicates a tactical recalibration by Beijing, shifting its regulatory scrutiny towards Nvidia as a bargaining tool in US-China trade negotiations, while signalling flexibility by dropping the Google probe, the report said.

 

What happened

 

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, which began investigating Google in February, has now opted to close the case. The regulator had earlier stated that Google was suspected of breaching the country’s anti-monopoly law but did not disclose details of the allegations. 

 

Google has not received formal notification of the decision to terminate the probe.

 

US-China trade tensions

 

Over the past six months, both countries have exchanged blows after US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods, later reducing them to 30 per cent, while also threatening to ban TikTok. Beijing responded with 10 per cent tariffs and antitrust investigations into US firms such as Google.

 

Nvidia chips banned in China

 

Earlier this week, China accused Nvidia of violating its anti-monopoly law following a preliminary inquiry into the California-based company’s business practices. The Cyberspace Administration of China also directed technology firms to stop using Nvidia chips designed specifically for the Chinese market.

 

Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang voiced disappointment over the development. “We can only be in service of a market if a country wants us to be,” he said. “I’m disappointed with what I see, but they have larger agendas to work out between China and the United States. And I’m patient about it.”

 

Google’s antitrust battle in the US

 

Google has also been battling legal challenges in the US over its dominance in online search. In 2020, the Department of Justice and several US states filed a case accusing the company of unlawfully monopolising the search and search advertising markets to block competitors.

 

The case centred on Google’s massive payments to tech firms to ensure Google Search remained the default option on browsers, smartphones, and devices. The government argued such deals restricted competition from rivals like Bing and DuckDuckGo. Among the remedies considered was a potential structural breakup, though the court allowed Chrome to remain under Google’s control while imposing new measures to limit anti-competitive practices.