FTC is suing Nvidia over Arm acquisition

2021-12-03

In the latest development of the Nvidia – Arm acquisition saga, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing Nvidia in an attempt to block its $40 billion purchase of the British-based chipset design company. The FTC’s reasoning behind the move is to prevent innovation stifling which it believes would result if the merger goes through. In addition, the FTC believes Nvidia would hold an unfair advantage in accessing sensitive information over rivals such as Qualcomm, Samsung and Apple as these companies rely on Arm-licensed chip designs.

The FTC is suing to block the largest semiconductor chip merger in history to prevent a chip conglomerate from stifling the innovation pipeline for next-generation technologies.

The proposed vertical deal would give one of the largest chip companies control over the computing technology and designs that rival firms rely on to develop their own competing chips. - Holly Vedova (FTC Bureau of Competition Director)

The Nvidia-Arm merger was initially expected to take 18 months to complete or March 2022 to be more precise but it seems this will not be the case now. FTC expects the administrative trial to begin on August 9, 2022.

Nvidia has since come out with a statement that it will continue to “work to demonstrate that this transaction will benefit the industry and promote good competition”. Nvidia has also reinstated its plans to keep Arm’s open license model which it argues will create more opportunities for all companies using Arm licensed designs.

Source | Via