“EU begins formal investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition plans of Arm in September” – IT Pro – News

The European Union will launch a formal investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm in early September. This was reported by anonymous sources to the Financial Times. Nvidia will submit the takeover offer to the European Commission in the week of September 6.

A formal EU antitrust investigation into the acquisition is expected to begin after Nvidia makes that request, he writes financial times. However, it is possible that this date could change, as two anonymous sources reported to the business newspaper. Nvidia made the request after “months of informal talks” between regulators and the chip company, sources said.

After Nvidia submits its application to the European Commission, the EU regulator will launch a preliminary investigation for 25 days, he writes Reuters. “Nvidia is unlikely to make any concessions during this period, which would later lead to a full 90 working days of EU realization,” the agency said, citing its sources.

Nvidia initially stated that the acquisition of Arm would be completed by March 2022, but it is not yet known if that will be possible. . sources Reuters It stated in June that this deadline may be exceeded, in part because the EU investigation will not begin until September, after the summer period.

In addition to the EU investigation, the acquisition may also face resistance from other competition authorities. For example, regulators in the UK and China are currently studying the acquisition. Bloomberg mentioned in advance this month The UK is considering blocking the takeover because of “potential risks to national security”. He wrote that China, in turn, would delay the acquisition the information in July.

Nvidia’s acquisition plans have been met with criticism in the chip segment. Tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm owns They expressed concerns about the acquisition in various regulators. Co-founder of Arm Suggested last year Nvidia’s acquisition is “disastrous for Arm’s business model.”

Arm licenses the chip designs and architecture of the Arm instruction set to its customers, who can build their own chips on it. Arm customers fear that purchasing Arm licenses for competitors Nvidia, which designs the chips themselves, will become more difficult or expensive in the future. Nvidia promised in its acquisition plans that Arm would maintain its open licensing model and customer-neutral stance.