We find a negative relation between share repurchase and corporate risk-taking using a sample of Chinese listed companies covering the period of 2014–2021. Our analysis yields consistent evidence even after consideration of endogeneity issues and the conducting of other robustness tests. We find that the impeded effect of share repurchase on corporate risk-taking is more pronounced for Chinese non-state-owned enterprises, firms with high competition in the product market, and firms located in low marketization regions. The possible mechanisms underlying these dynamics include share repurchase increasing the restrictions on low-cost financing and reducing over-investment. Our findings provide important implications for policyand low-making and are generalizable to other emerging markets.