Nvidia’s $40 Billion Dollar Purchase of ARM is Under Investigation

LONDON — The purchase of ARM is not going well. The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority), the U.K.’s fair-competition oversight committee, yesterday announced its plans to launch an investigation into nVidia’s purchase of ARM, a British chip designer.

Nvidia made plans to purchase ARM from SoftBank for $40 billion last September. Critics of the acquisition have called on local governments and regulators to take a look at the deal under a microscope.

The CMA is even wanting third parties to give their take on just how the massive deal could make an impact on healthy competition before the official investigation launches later.

The chip technology industry is worth billions and critical to many of the products that we use most in our everyday lives. We will work closely with other competition authorities around the world to carefully consider the impact of the deal and ensure that it doesn’t ultimately result in consumers facing more expensive or lower quality products.

Andrea Coscelli – Chief Executive of the CMA

nVidia’s Purchase of ARM Being Investigated is no Surprise

Because it’s such a massive acquisition, this investigation was to be expected.

There are regulatory approvals to go through in many jurisdictions around the world,” Segars said last month. “That is a drawn-out process. There’s a lot of interaction that has to go on with the regulators to provide the information that they want.

Simon Segars – ARM Chief Executive

When nVidia had originally announced the purchase of ARM. the British chip company said that they were hoping that the deal would be complete by early 2022, while British tech investors have been predicting that the acquisition will be blocked entirely.