Sept 18 (Reuters) - China is ending an antitrust probe

into Google, as trade talks between Beijing and Washington

intensify over TikTok and Nvidia ( NVDA ) amid rising tensions between

the two countries, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Google declined to comment to the FT, and did not

immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation has opted

to drop its competition investigation against Google, a status

known as "zhongzhi" in Chinese, the report said citing two

people briefed on the decision.

Google has not been formally notified of the decision to

drop the probe, FT said.