State Administration for Market Regulation: Nvidia Probe

Market oversight and merger conditions

The State Administration for Market Regulation is a ministerial-level agency directly under China’s State Council. Its remit includes antitrust review and enforcement, market conduct and product-quality safety. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s account of its Chinese counterpart places SAMR’s creation in the 2018 government reorganization. [1][2]

For AI hardware, merger conditions are one way this institutional role becomes concrete. On December 9, 2024, SAMR announced an investigation into suspected NVIDIA violations of the Anti-Monopoly Law and conditions attached to the 2020 approval of its Mellanox acquisition. [3]

A preliminary finding and further investigation

SAMR’s September 15, 2025 statement said its preliminary investigation found violations and announced further investigation. The statement records an intermediate enforcement stage; it does not announce a final penalty or completed remedy. This account ends with that statement. [4]