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Beijing ends Google probe, shifts focus to Nvidia in U.S. trade talks

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China has decided to end its antitrust investigation into Google, signaling a strategic shift as trade negotiations with Washington intensify over TikTok and Nvidia, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The move indicates Beijing is redirecting regulatory pressure toward Nvidia as a bargaining tool in the ongoing trade talks, while closing the Google probe as a gesture of flexibility toward the United States.

According to the report, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, which launched the investigation against Google in February, has dropped the case. The regulator had previously suggested Google might have violated China’s anti-monopoly law but did not provide further details. Google has reportedly not yet been formally notified of the decision.

Earlier this week, Chinese authorities accused Nvidia of breaching anti-monopoly rules following a preliminary review of its business practices. The shift comes amid heightened tensions, with both nations trading tariffs and regulatory measures in recent months. Washington imposed steep tariffs on Chinese goods and threatened to ban TikTok, while Beijing responded with its own tariffs and investigations targeting U.S. tech firms, including Google.

India downplays Foxconn disruption from Chinese staff pullback

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India’s government said Foxconn’s operations in the country remain largely unaffected despite the company recalling some of its Chinese engineers and technicians in recent months.

S. Krishnan, secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, told reporters in Taipei that Foxconn had managed the adjustment smoothly, relying on staff from Taiwan, the U.S., and local Indian workers to keep production stable. “Operations did not really suffer significantly,” he said.

Foxconn, Apple’s top iPhone assembler, has been expanding in India as part of efforts to diversify production away from China, particularly amid the risk of triple-digit U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. The company already runs a plant near Chennai and is building another near Bengaluru.

Bloomberg previously reported that hundreds of Chinese employees were asked to return home, though the reasons remain unclear. Both Foxconn and Apple declined to comment.

The backdrop includes lingering India-China tensions since their 2020 border clash, which led New Delhi to tighten restrictions on Chinese firms and ban dozens of Chinese apps. Relations have warmed somewhat, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting President Xi Jinping last month in Beijing for the first time in seven years.

Krishnan emphasized that Foxconn is “committed to see through all the investments in India,” noting its expansion has been “very significant.”

Taiwan leverages chip power for diplomacy at Semicon trade show

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At this year’s Semicon trade show in Taipei, Taiwan elevated its “chip diplomacy” strategy, using its dominance in the semiconductor industry to strengthen diplomatic ties with both established allies and new partners.

Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, sits at the center of global supply chains but Taiwan itself remains diplomatically isolated due to China’s sovereignty claims. To counter this, Taiwan’s foreign ministry co-sponsored a Semicon geopolitics panel for the first time, where Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung described semiconductors and AI as “strategic resources” and stressed the need for trusted, “non-red” supply chains outside China.

The outreach comes as Taiwan courts “like-minded” democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, where sympathy has grown following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Czech Science Minister Marek Zenisek, speaking alongside President Lai Ching-te, highlighted shared democratic values and pitched his country as a supplier for TSMC’s first European fab in Dresden, Germany.

But Semicon also drew less expected guests. Costa Rica, which cut ties with Taiwan in 2007 in favor of China, attended for the first time with a national pavilion. And in another first, a group of 10 African tech entrepreneurs joined, supported by the French-African Foundation. Joelle Itoua Owona, CEO of AfriWell Health in the Republic of Congo, said African governments want to diversify partnerships beyond China, calling Taiwan “an additional friend.”

With 17 country pavilions—the most ever— this year’s Semicon showcased how Taiwan’s chip industry has become a powerful diplomatic tool. Beyond chips and AI, the trade show highlighted Taiwan’s role in building global coalitions at a time of intensifying pressure from Beijing.