AI chipmaker Nvidia has increasingly found itself caught in a tug of war between Washington and Beijing. And on Monday, China gave a mighty pull—ruling that Nvidia had violated the country’s antitrust laws.

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said, in a preliminary finding, that Nvidia had failed to fully comply with provisions it had imposed on the chipmaker in 2020 when the agency conditionally approved Nvidia’s acquisition of Mellanox Technologies , an Israeli-U.S. networking equipment maker.

The move is largely seen as a way for Chinese officials to signal their displeasure with Washington’s restrictions on the export of cutting edge technology , including Nvidia’s top-of-the-line AI chips, to China. The regulator began its antitrust probe of Nvidia’s

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