NVIDIA's purchase of ARM to be investigated by UK
Finally, the United Kingdom seems to have given in to pressure and will investigate the purchase of ARM by NVIDIA
Last September 2020 left us not one of the big bombs of the year: NVIDIA acquired ARM. The acquisition was mostly on paper, as it then needs the approval of various international regulators. Well, the UK regulator has launched an investigation into NVIDIA's acquisition of ARM for $ 40.000 billion.
Even before the operation was closed, many critical voices to this operation appeared. It was emphasized above all that NVIDIA could acquire a privileged position in the industry. The reality is that NVIDIA could now compete with Intel and AMD in the processor market, a market in which they are not currently. The problem is that ARM does not manufacture anything, only licenses their designs, which would give NVIDIA a privileged position in the industry.
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The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced an investigation into the operation. It appears that criticism from within the industry has had an effect. Note that China would have shown its interest in blocking this operation to pressure the United States.
On the other hand, the United Kingdom was already uncomfortable with this sale made by Softbank. ARM until September of last year belonged to the Softbank investment group. The problem is that the UK does not want to lose such a large source of income as ARM. And less so now, with his departure from the European Union.
What we do know is that the CMA will conduct a staggered investigation. Initially they will ask third parties to provide information on the possible consequences for British competition and for the industry in general. It would be at the end of the year when an exhaustive scrutiny phase of the operation would begin.
Hermann Hauser, co-founder of ARM, has already opposed this operation quite vehemently in the past. There are many who want to prevent this operation from being carried out.
NVIDIA seems unlikely to make changes to the current ARM structure. The company's idea, they have shown, would be to focus on manufacturing its own SoCs for its AI and Machine Learning systems. They plan to enter different processor markets thanks to this purchase, but without stopping supplying designs to third parties such as Apple, Qualcomm, Samsung, etc.
[irp]Source: TPU
