After President Trump announced tariffs on China yesterday, the country's regulatory body has announced that it is investigating Google for anti competitive practices. China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) announced a new investigation into Google, but the search engine giant might not be the only company on its radar. As per the Financial Times, sources indicate that Chinese authorities are also interested in opening an investigation into Intel after announcing an investigation into NVIDIA last year.
China To Investigate Google's Android & Harm Caused To Local Companies, Says Report
China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) put out a brief press release on its site earlier today which outlined that it was opening an investigation into Google. A machine translated version of the statement reads:
Because Google is suspected of violating the Anti-Monopoly Law of the People's Republic of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation has launched an investigation into Google in accordance with the law.
Despite the announcement, Google's shares were unaffected and were up by 0.80% in premarket trading.
While the nature of China's investigation remained unclear, a report from the Financial Times claims that it will revolve around the Android operating system and its anticompetitive effects on Chinese firms such as Xiaomi and Oppo which use Android to power up their gadgets.
Additionally, while the investigation against Google is official, the FT adds that Chinese authorities are interested in investigating Intel. Intel has manufacturing facilities in China where it packages and tests its laptop processors.
The FT's source added that whether an investigation into Intel will become official depends on the US and China relationship. China's announcement today was part of a broader actions against the US which came in retaliation to the President's announcement yesterday.
SAMR officials also visited Google's offices and asked for information to be turned over. China isn't the only region where Google is facing regulatory action. The firm's battle with the US Justice Department weighed on its shares throughout 2024 with reports suggesting that a potential sale of businesses such as Android or the Chrome browser was on the cards as well. Google's search engine is blacklisted in China which leaves Android as the only avenue to be targeted.
Google's relationship with Apple through which it pays the latter fees to make Google Search the default platform on Apple's products has also drawn scrutiny. On the other hand, Intel has remained relatively unscathed from similar scrutiny, but its shares were down by a hairline -0.80% in premarket trading at the time of publishing.
China also blacklisted US firms PVH and Illumina, as part of actions that appeared to target companies not essential to US exports. Previous statements from the Chinese government have targeted PVH for discriminating against Chinese products, and the impact of the blacklisting and its timeline is unclear.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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