Several months ago we share here on the blog the news of the purchase of ARM by Nvidia, since the companies had been holding conversations and negotiations for some time that, according to rumors, in the past they also had with Apple, among others such as TSMC or Foxconn, who would also have been interested in the purchase.
Ultimately, the winner of the purchase was NVIDIA, but the matter did not stop there, as such purchase must be subject to the approval of numerous authorities regulators around the world (if you want to know more about it, you can consult the post in the following link).
UK to investigate ARM purchase
The UK antitrust watchdog said it will investigate the acquisition proposed for $ 40.000 billion by Nvidia Corp. of British chip designer ARM Ltd.
Nvidia is the leading manufacturer of desktop and data center graphics processing units.
And ARM, in turn, develops chip designs that underpin the processors inside most of the world's smartphones and many other low-power devices. Arm's chip designs are used, among others, by some semiconductor companies that compete with Nvidia.
The antitrust investigation from the UK Competition and Market Authority will seek to determine whether the deal risks damaging rivals.
In this investigation to be carried out it is stated that there are three potential problems in particular that officials can evaluate.
"The CMA is likely to consider whether, after the acquisition, Arm has an incentive to withdraw, raise prices, or lower the quality of its IP [intellectual property] licensing services to NVIDIA's rivals," the statement read. official statement on the investigation.
The CMA has invited interested third parties to send their comments before the investigation, which will begin later this year.
The investigation is not entirely unexpected Given that, at $ 40.000 billion, Nvidia's proposed purchase of Arm would be one of the largest tech acquisitions ever.
The issue of possible regulatory scrutiny came up almost immediately after the transaction was announced. At the time, Nvidia made a commitment to "continue Arm's open license model and customer neutrality."
The chipmaker also plans to take other measures that could ease the concerns of regulators. Nvidia said it intends to make the intellectual property behind its distinctive graphics card available to license from ARM's customer base, which includes competing companies.
A "senior Nvidia executive" who spoke to Reuters added that the company plans to implement security measures to ensure that it cannot access confidential information belonging to Arm's customers or receive early access to its new products.
Companies previously argued that joining forces would not reduce competition because they operate in different markets. Nvidia chips are primarily found in data centers and desktops, while ARM designs are more commonly used to build smartphones and "Internet of Things" devices.
However, there are some limited overlaps: Nvidia provides machine learning chips for vehicles, a segment Arm is prioritizing as well. Buying ARM would expand Nvidia's reach to numerous parts of the chip market where it currently has no presence.
The agreement has certain parallels with its acquisition of Mellanox for $ 6,9 billion, whose main target market, networking, is also an area where Nvidia did not have an established presence prior to the deal.
Nvidia has built on the acquisition by introducing new chips and supercomputing products that incorporate Mellanox technology.
Finally, if you want to know more about it you can check the following link.