Arm-Nvidia: Europe investigates the sale of chip-designers

The European Commission has opened a competition investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition of the British chip design company Arm.

The $ 40 billion (£ 29 billion) deal was announced in September.

Regulators are concerned that Nvidia may use the move to restrict access to Arm’s technology, which powers the vast majority of the world’s smartphones.

Nvidia has promised it will keep Arm’s open licensing model.

Officials said the tech giant, the world’s largest maker of graphics and artificial intelligence chips, has offered concessions in an effort to address its concerns.

But the commission said it still had “serious doubts” about the deal, which it believes could involve:

“Our analysis shows that Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm could lead to limited or degraded access to Arm’s IP. [intellectual property], with distorting effects in many markets where semiconductors are used, “said European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.

Nvidia said they are confident they can address regulators’ concerns and move forward with the acquisition.

“We look forward to the opportunity to address their initial concerns and continue to demonstrate that the transaction will help accelerate Arm and spur competition and innovation, including in the [European Union]”said a representative.

The commission has until March 15, 2022 to decide whether to cancel the agreement.

It’s the second ongoing investigation into the takeover – the UK competition supervisor announced its own earlier this year.

The chip companies had originally hoped to complete the deal by March next year, but it now looks unlikely.