Pranay Kotasthane
China’s announcement on 15 September that Nvidia broke antitrust law is another instance of Beijing weaponising regulations for geopolitical gain. The decision of the country’s market regulator—State Administration for Market Regulation—against the American top chip maker, which had been taken as US-China trade negotiations proceeded in Madrid, illustrated how antitrust enforcement has moved beyond simple market competition issues into economic statecraft.
This episode teaches India an important lesson in the strength of evidence-based regulatory leverage. As global powers increasingly use economic coercion, India finds itself not as the swing power that it desires to be, but as a swung power buffeted by decisions made in Washington and Beijing. The way out lies in building its own instruments of leverage to inflict costs on other countries. Even if there are unintended consequences, as there will surely be, India must be ready with its own retaliatory options. One of which is strategic merger reviews.
SAMR has shown this strategy with quantifiable results. It is an antitrust regulator scrutinising mergers and acquisitions among firms with major operations in China. But it often deploys delays in approval and conditions as geopolitical tools against foreign governments, transforming even routine business deals into diplomatic levers.
The Intel-Tower Semiconductor is the most theatrical example—a $5.4 billion transaction that won the approval of nearly every regulator around the world except SAMR. Intel had to eventually walk away from the buyout, paying Tower Semiconductor a $353 million breakup fee. This was a retaliation for US semiconductor sanctions.
The Broadcom-VMware acquisition is another revealing example. The $69 billion deal was delayed specifically because of Chinese regulatory slowdowns. Final approval only arrived after favourable talks between the then US president Joe Biden and his counterpart, Xi Jinping, and conditions were imposed that assured VMware software would remain compatible for Chinese buyers.
Nevertheless, SAMR’s strategy is not entirely obstructionist. In 2023, as tensions flared high, SAMR cleared high-profile transactions such as Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, illustrating strategic, instead of blanket, resistance, which can be leveraged with credibility intact.
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