China bans Nvidia chip imports: China’s top internet regulator has ordered Chinese tech companies to halt imports of Nvidia microchips, the Financial Times reported last week. The ban targets AI microchips designed for Chinese markets, including tens of thousands of the RTX Pro 6000D semiconductors.

The context: The move comes amid efforts to boost the country’s domestic AI chips industry as tech competition intensifies with the US. It also comes almost one month after the Chinese government sent out missives discouraging the use of outdated semiconductors — especially Nvidia’s H20 processors — over concerns that the chips may have remote tracking and shutdown capabilities.

Nvidia is currently China’s newfound focus in US trade talks, after the country dropped its probe into Google ahead of a call between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping last week, Reuters reported. The country had earlier decided to investigate Google for anti-monopoly practices, after being slapped with massive tariffs that were later lowered by the US. Nvidia is now the subject of a similar probe, after China’s cyberspace regulator found it violated anti-monopoly laws with its USD 7 bn acquisition of Israel’s Mellanox Technologies in 2020.

IN OTHER NVIDIA NEWS- US chipmaker Nvidia has invested USD 5 bn to acquire a 4% stake in rival, struggling chipmaker Intel, weeks after the US government bought into the company, Bloomberg reported. Together, the two firms will develop PC and data center chips, while Intel’s contract manufacturing business will supply processors and packaging for joint products.

A massive lifeline for Intel: The firm — which has been struggling to match the industry’s pace in AI — is getting direct access to future AI infrastructure through the acquisition, analysts say. Intel’s shares surged nearly 23% on the news.

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