China’s market regulator has said US computer chipmaker Nvidia has violated Chinese anti-monopoly laws.
The country’s market watchdog did not give details of how Nvidia had breached the rules, but said it would continue to investigate the matter.
The news came as US and Chinese officials held a second day of trade talks in Spain on Monday in the latest attempt to end a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
Following the talks, US President Donald Trump hinted that a deal had been reached with China to avert a US ban on TikTok.
The social media app was facing a ban in America unless it found a US buyer.
The US-China trade talks in Spain were led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Following the talks, Mr Bessent said: “We had very good discussions. We preferred to keep the discussions on TikTok, we will be holding trade negotiations in about a month again at a different location.”
Top level trade delegations from Beijing and Washington last met in July, when they struck a deal to extend their tariffs truce by another 90 days until 10 November.
The tariffs truce between China and the US cut import taxes that had reached more than 100%on each other’s goods.
China launched an investigation into Nvidia in December last year which was seen as the latest retaliation in a battle between the US and China over the semiconductor chip market.
The US had been tightening restrictions on sales of certain exports to Chinese companies, including high-end semiconductors.
The talks in Madrid were expected to address the issue of what chips, including those made by Nvidia, would be allowed to enter China.
The BBC has contacted Nvidia for comment.
After initially calling for TikTok to be banned during his first term, Trump has reversed his stance on the popular video-sharing app and delayed the ban three times so far.
Posting on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said a deal was “reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our country very much wanted to save. They will be very happy! I will be speaking to President Xi on Friday. The relationship remains a very strong one!!!”
There had been expectations that the deadline, which was due to expire on Wednesday, might be extended for a fourth time.
Although Trump was highly critical of TikTok during his first term in the White House, he softened his position after he gained popularity on the app during the 2024 presidential election.
In August, The White House launched its official TikTok account.
The app is one of the world’s most widely-used social media platforms, with around 170 million users in the US.
By BBC News
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