In the past four years Huang has taken Nvidia from a trailing position to dominance in the breakneck, highly lucrative graphics-chip business.

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Neither company is pitching from a position of dominance, which it would have done in previous eras, but rather one of world-weary self interest.

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Analysts and market participants have long said the Merc has the most envious competitive position of all, with its dominance in the growing business of derivatives trading.

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Qualcomm, a major position, equals the market but its dominance holds in the smartphone components sector.

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Mr Almunia explained the rare divergence with Washington on Google by the differing legal standards for abuse of dominance, as well as Google's stronger position in Europe, where it handles more than 90 per cent of searches.

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It indicated the search giant would want to maintain its dominance as it shifted to services such as Google Now that push position-based suggestions at users without them having to tap in queries into its search bar.

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Roman Abramovich's arrival at Chelsea in 2003 catapulted the club into a position where they are now the biggest rivals to United's English dominance, both on the field and in the transfer market.

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The question is whether, given their dominance of what is arguably a vital public network, they could end up being seen as exploiting their position with impunity and draw government scrutiny.

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