OK, I found the culprit.
Manually checking for updates at chrome://components/ deletes the GoogleUpdater folder from C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\
The "Chrome Improved Recovery" component is probably causing it.
I found a Reddit thread about the same issue:
So the...
Periodically, a few times a month, I get this error when checking for Google Chrome browser update. The only way to fix it is to download and run the Google Chrome installer.
Has anybody else experienced this, and what could be causing it?