‘EU starts formal investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition plans for Arm in September’

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The EU will launch a formal investigation into Nvidia’s acquisition of Arm in early September. This is reported by anonymous sources to the Financial Times. Nvidia would submit the acquisition proposal to the European Commission in the week of September 6.

The formal EU antitrust investigation into the acquisition is expected to begin after Nvidia makes this request, the Financial Times writes. However, it is possible that this date will change, two anonymous sources report to the business newspaper. Nvidia is making the request after “months of informal talks” between regulators and the chip company, the sources report.

After Nvidia submits its request to the European Commission, the EU regulator will start a 25-day preliminary investigation, Reuters also writes. “It is unlikely that Nvidia will make any concessions during this period, which will subsequently lead to a full 90 working days EU investigation,” the news agency said, citing its own sources.

Nvidia initially reported that the acquisition of Arm is to be completed by March 2022, but it is not yet known whether this is feasible. Reuters sources reported in June that this deadline may be exceeded, partly because the EU investigation would not start until September, after the summer period.

In addition to the EU investigation, the acquisition may also encounter resistance from other competition authorities. For example, the regulators of the United Kingdom and China are currently also considering the acquisition. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the UK is considering blocking the acquisition due to “potential risks to national security.” China, in turn, would delay the acquisition, The Information reported in July.

Nvidia’s takeover plans were met with criticism in the chip sector. Tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Qualcomm have expressed their concerns about the acquisition to various regulators. Arm’s co-founder stated last year that the acquisition by Nvidia “is disastrous for Arm’s business model.”

Arm licenses its customers for chip designs and the Arm instruction set architecture. They can base their own chips on that. Arm customers fear that it will become more difficult or more expensive in the future to purchase Arm licenses for competitors of Nvidia, which also designs chips itself. Nvidia promised in the acquisition plans that Arm will maintain its open licensing model and neutral stance towards customers.

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